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Wednesday, Wed, 15 JanuaryJan 2025
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New faces to help Southern Utd progress

New Southern United signings (from left): Liam MacDevitt, Tony Whitehead, Azariah Soromon and...
New Southern United signings (from left): Liam MacDevitt, Tony Whitehead, Azariah Soromon and Markus Fjortoft at Forsyth Barr Stadium. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON
Kicking on from last season's progress is the focus for Southern United and it has several new faces mixed with the familiar ones to help with that.

Liam MacDevitt, Tony Whitehead, Azariah Soromon and Markus Fjortoft are among the key players to have joined the side for the national football premiership.

Coach Paul O'Reilly is ``really happy with the additions'', the new quartet adding new pieces across the pitch.

Markus Fjortoft (24) is a 1.95m defender from Norway and has spent the past four years in the United States at both college and professional levels.

Physical defensive midfielder Tony Whitehead (22) comes from Ireland.

He was lured to the side by Garbhan Coughlan, who was signed by Southern last season and is back for another year.

Up front, Englishman Liam MacDevitt and Vanuatuan Azariah Soromon add speed and flair to the side.

Also linking with the team are Green Island's Matt Brazier, former Auckland Grammar School captain Ben Deeley, who is originally from Timaru, and Abdullah Al Kalisy, who moves from Tasman United.

They are joined by a host of returners from the side which finished fifth last season.

Irishmen Conor O'Keeffe, Stephen Last and Danny Ledwith are back for a third year, while Liam Little and Omar Guardiola return after spending the winter in Australia.

Jared Grove and Ben Wade are both back after impressive campaigns last year as well, while Tom Stevens and Nick Treadwell have also re-signed.

The squad is not yet complete and several locally based players are still deciding whether they can commit to playing around work and family.

Among those gone are Tim McLennan, who is on an OE, and Tom Connor, who has been ruled out through work commitments.

Tristan Prattley, who played a handful of games for Dunedin Tech this year, was another the side attempted to secure.

Overall, O'Reilly is happy with the squad so far and said it was important to build on the progress made over the past two seasons.

``For me, we must be looking to remain in the top six.

``So in terms of our aspirations for the league table, it's can we stay in the top six?

``But there's a little bit of ambition among the group to say, `Can we kick on higher?'

``We finished fifth last year. We had a poor spell at the middle end of the season, so before and after Christmas we had a few poor results and we ended up finishing really strong. But we need to have a bit more consistency if we're realistic about kicking on to that top four.''

The side is training eight times a week and O'Reilly said pre-season was going well.

It has its first hit-out next weekend against Canterbury United. The season begins on October 21 when it plays Canterbury in Christchurch.

 

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