Run match day from the touchline

Match day runs from the same pitch you picked your team on. What you log on the touchline is the record the club keeps: minutes played, scorers and cards all feed selection, development reviews and the season's numbers. It's also what families at work and grandparents overseas are watching live. So the aim is simple: log it as it happens, and put it right afterwards if the game moved faster than your thumbs.

• Open the fixture from Matches. Your lineup should be set first; Pick your team each week covers that.
• Agree who is logging. If your team manager is tracking the match, you coach and they record. Two phones logging the same goal is the one mistake that's tedious to undo.
• Senior grades may be tracked differently. Your club chooses per programme, and the senior variants are further down this page.

Pre-season hit-outs and friendlies against other clubs aren't in the league draw, so you add them yourself as trial games. On Matches, Add trial game (the + at the top of the screen on a phone) opens a form that names your squad, then asks for the Opponent (a club you play, or one you type), Home or Away, the date, kickoff and ground. An Australian Championship squad has the button too: its next trial game is named inside the draw's headline match, and every trial game is listed under the draw.

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From there it runs exactly like the rest of this page: the same lineup, kick-off and logging. Two things differ. What you log stays with that match and doesn't count towards season stats, so a big trial win won't inflate anyone's minutes or goals. And whether anyone hears about it is your choice: the switch is on by default and reads Notify families for a junior squad, Notify players for a senior one. Move or cancel it from Match Settings on the match.

An internal match, two groups from your squad in bibs, isn't added here. It's filmed training with no opponent or score, so it never appears as a match, in Matches or anyone's calendar, and nobody is notified about it. You make it from its Veo recording in Presentations, as Build and present a deck shows.

You can add a trial game after it was played, too. It starts with notifications off, and a past trial game is recorded the way a JDL result is: Set Match Lineup asks for the lineup first, then the match sheet takes the score and whatever detail you want to keep (see Fix the record). Trial games and internal matches covers the rest, including linking Veo footage by hand.

Where your club uses match briefings, the fixture carries a Coach Guide tab (Guide on a phone): a briefing on the opponent, recent form, previous meetings and the key tactical considerations. For a JDL match it's framed around development instead, with a coaching focus and player development notes. It's worth five minutes before the warm-up.

To get it to an assistant or analyst who isn't in the app, tap Share Coach Guide (on a laptop, Share at the foot of the guide). The link opens a read-only copy with no login, so anyone who has it can read it. Share it with the people who need it, not the team group chat.

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If your squad meets in a video room before the game, the fixture can put the team up for you. Until kick-off, a Pre-match presentation line sits at the foot of the Bench, Coach Notes and Scouting panel (beside the pitch on a computer, below it on a phone). It shows how many of the starting XI are placed and in which formation. Present puts the starting XI on the screen straight away, and Build deck (Open deck once it exists) lets you add the game plan first. Build and present a deck covers the deck.

Tap Kick Off in the match header and confirm with Kick Off. The clock starts, and a live match card appears on the lock screen of every family following the team (more on that below). If you're more than five minutes early, the confirm says so first.

• Lineup not complete? You'll see Incomplete Lineup. Complete Lineup takes you back to the pitch, and Start Anyway kicks off with the players you have.
• Started by mistake? For the first minute there's an undo arrow in the match controls. It puts the match back to not started, clears anything recorded and takes the live card off everyone's phone. Nobody is sent a message about it. After the first minute, a match that has to stop is abandoned instead (see below).

Tap any player on the pitch to open their options: Goal, Assist, Yellow Card, Red Card and Replace for a substitution. Once a player is on a yellow, the card option becomes 2nd Yellow (Send Off), and a send-off asks you to confirm before it's recorded. The minute comes from the clock, so there's nothing to type. After a goal, assist or yellow, the same event can't be logged for that player again for 15 seconds, so a double tap never counts twice.

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For a substitution, tap Replace on the player coming off and choose who comes on. You can also drag a bench player straight onto the pitch. Minutes are worked out from these changes, so every substitution you log keeps each player's time on the pitch honest.

Opposition goals are logged on the scoreboard (1). Tap it to open Opponent Goals, use + or −. If their squad list is loaded you'll be asked who scored (Unknown Scorer is there if you didn't see it), then Done.

JDL matches have no cards. The player options offer Sin Bin (5 min) instead, a timed dismissal.

Capture what you noticed. In the same panel as the bench, Coach Notes saves an observation against the match ("switched to a back three, immediately steadier"), and Scouting lets you rate and tag opposition players while they're in front of you. Notes are only visible to coaching staff.

The clock (2) runs like the referee's, and there's no pause button. A pulsing red dot means it's running, and at the break it reads HT. If the first half runs past its length, the clock counts the added time after it, such as 45+2:10, so it never reads like the second half. The controls beside it move the match on:

1. End the first half. At the scheduled half length, the red stop button beside the clock (Half on a wider screen) ends it straight away. Tap it earlier and End Half Early? asks first: Keep Playing goes back, End Half ends it now, and Match Abandoned is there if the game is being called off. A junior half ends on its own when its length is up. A senior half plays added time, so the clock runs on until you end it, and anything logged in added time is recorded at the half's final minute (45 in a 45-minute half), the way the league records it. If it runs eight minutes over, a Still first half? banner offers End half or Still playing.
2. Start the second half. Tap Start 2nd, then Start 2nd Half. The confirm tells you how long half time has run, and warns you if it's been under three minutes. If you start it by mistake, the undo arrow (Undo 2nd on a wider screen) puts the match back to half time for the next two minutes, as long as nothing has been logged.
3. Full time. Once the second half is a minute past its scheduled length, the clock pauses and Full Time appears. Continue Playing covers stoppage time, and End Match finishes it.

If you ended the match before its scheduled length by mistake, a resume arrow appears beside Full Time and picks the match up where it stopped.

If the game has to stop, tap the stop button beside the clock and choose Match Abandoned in the confirm that opens, pick the reason (Weather, Lightning, Extreme heat, Unsafe pitch, Player safety or Other) and tap Confirm Abandonment. The match can be resumed later from where it stopped. A new date or any other status change is made by your club admin: postponed and abandoned matches explains the FNSW rules.

Your club decides how each senior programme is tracked, so a senior match can look one of three ways.

• Full tracking is everything above: the pitch, players, events and minutes.
• Score-only tracking gives you the senior match tracker: + and − on each side's score, and one main button that moves through Kick off, End first half, Start second half and Full time. Undo kickoff is there in the first minute, or while the scheduled kick-off is still more than five minutes away. Where Football NSW broadcasts the match, the score tracks itself from the broadcast. Tap + or − and Take over scoring? asks first: Take over makes the score yours, and the broadcast stops updating it.
• No live tracking means the match page holds the briefing, Notes and Scouting, and there's no tracker.

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Everything you log lands with the families following the team, and on their lock screens most of all.

• At kick-off, the live match card appears. Where a phone announces it, it reads Match Started with the two teams, such as Harbourview FC vs Seacliff Strikers.
• During the match, the card keeps the score and clock current. A goal updates it straight away, and one against you reads Goal conceded.
• In the app, families see the pitch you're logging on, with each goal, assist and card badged on the player.

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• About two minutes after you end the match, families get the Match Result notification, for example BYL U13 won 3–1 vs Sandpiper Bay SC. The short wait is deliberate. It gives you time to resume a match you ended early by mistake, or fix the score, before anyone is told. After that, the message has gone. Tap the scoreboard to change the score and Change the final score? warns you that the message families already have won't update.

Follow a match day walks the same match from a parent's seat.

Once the match is over, the fixture opens on Results: the score, the events and each player's minutes. Beside it you'll find Notes and Scouting (Scout on a phone) in full, H2H for your history against this opponent (not for JDL matches), Load if your squad wears GPS, and Video once there's footage from the club camera or a Football NSW broadcast.

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Minutes and scorers feed selection, player reviews and the season's stats, so they're only useful if they match what happened on the pitch. Fix them whenever you notice: Sunday night, or Thursday when a parent asks about a missing goal. Open the fixture, go to Results and tap Make changes. The tab becomes the match sheet.

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It reads top to bottom. Each goal and card sits under the score with the player and minute. Below that is a row per player, with a bar for each spell on the pitch labelled with their position, and a marker at the minute of every goal, assist and card. To fix something, tap the thing that's wrong:

The 9th-minute goal was credited to your striker, but it was the winger's. Tap the goal, change Player and tap Save. The score, both players' season numbers and what families see all update.

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• Assists follow their goal. Removing a goal removes its assist, and the editor names the assisting player first.
• Removing anything offers an undo for a few seconds. After that, add it again with Add.
• A warning isn't a block. Crediting a goal at a minute the player was off the pitch warns you but still saves. Often it's the substitution minute that's wrong, and you'll fix that next.
• Some events come from the league. Those are locked. Opening one explains that it has to be fixed with the league.

The 55th-minute double substitution happened on the pitch but not in the app, so two players show the full match and two show nothing. Tap Add at the bottom of the match sheet.

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Choose Substitution, set the minute, then pick who came off and who came on. The lists only offer players who were on (or off) the pitch at that minute, and they update as you change it. A goal for your side takes a scorer and an optional assist, and an opposition goal takes the minute, plus their scorer if their squad list is loaded. In JDL matches the card option is Time out.

Tap the player's row. Their Time on pitch lists each spell with On at, Off at and Position. Split cuts a spell at the minute you choose, so the second half can carry its own position. Add time on pitch covers a spell you never logged. Apply changes saves it to the chart.

Plenty of JDL results go in after the match rather than live, and that's a normal way to do it. The same goes for a trial game you didn't track. If a completed JDL match or trial game has no lineup, Set Match Lineup asks for one first: tap each player to move them through Starting, Bench and Did Not Play, then Confirm Lineup & Add Events. On a match with nothing recorded, Add Events opens the match sheet. Enter the score first, then as much detail as you want to keep.

When everything reads true, Done takes you back to Results.

• The score in Clubhouse matches the one on the pitch, and every goal has the right scorer.
• Every substitution is logged, so each player's minutes are right.
• Anything you want for Monday's review is in Coach Notes, not in your head.