Run match day as a team manager

On match day your squad's match page does one of two jobs. On most squads the coach logs the game and your page follows it live. Where your club has asked you to run match day, the same page gives you everything the coach has: the lineup, the clock, and every goal, card and substitution. Either way, what you log or watch is what every family following the squad sees on their phone.

• Open the match from Matches, or from Next Match on Home.
• Whether you can track depends on a setting your club admin controls, called Track live matches. It's off unless they turn it on, and it applies to one squad at a time. If you manage two squads, you can be tracking one and following the other.
• If the match page shows a pitch with a lineup to fill and a Kick Off button, you're tracking. If it shows the score and match details with no controls, you're following.
• If you're tracking, agree with the coach before kick-off which of you is logging. The coach can track the same match from their own phone, and you both work on one match record, so the same goal logged twice counts twice.

Without tracking, the match page is a live view of the game. Before kick-off it has Match Info, a Watch tab when a camera is already streaming, and, outside the junior development programmes, a Head-to-Head record against this opponent. While the game is on you see the score, the lineup and each event as it's logged, plus Match Stats and a Live Stream where the match is filmed. Afterwards it keeps the result, the lineups and the scorers. The rest of the club's games are one tab away, covered in Follow the club on match day.

Your club admin turns tracking on from your name on the squad. The setting explains itself in their words: it lets Fiona run match day — line-up, subs, goals, timer, and post-match edits. The team managers answer for admins walks them through it. Once it's on, open the match again and the tracking controls are there.

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Drag players from the bench onto the pitch, or tap an empty position to choose a player. Players who have said they're unavailable are shown faded so you don't start someone who's away. The lineup saves as you go.

The formation button sits under the pitch and shows the current shape. Tap it for the shapes that match your match format, each drawn as a small pitch: 9v9 starts from 3-2-3 (FNSW Recommended) and offers 3-3-2 and 2-3-3 among others, and 11v11 starts from 4-3-3 (Base Formation). Any shapes your club has shared are listed under Club. Changing shape moves your players into the nearest matching positions, so check the pitch afterwards. Once the match is under way the list is for switching only. The formations answer explains each shape.

If a player drops out while you're setting up, tap them and choose Mark Unavailable with the reason. They come off the pitch and out of the bench for this match only. To bring in a player from another squad, such as a younger player playing up, use + Add Player at the bottom of the bench. The lineup answer covers the detail.

Kick Off asks you to confirm before it starts the clock, and warns you if you're more than five minutes early. If positions are still empty you'll see Incomplete Lineup: Complete Lineup takes you back, and Start Anyway kicks off short.

From there the red button beside the clock ends the half, then Start 2nd begins the second half, and the same red button ends the match. On a tablet or computer it's labelled Half and then End; on a phone it's just the stop icon. Press it before time is up and Clubhouse checks first, with End Half Early? and an End Half button to confirm, so a stray tap can't cut a half short.

Two more safety nets cover a mistap: kick-off can be undone during the first minute, and Undo 2nd (an undo arrow on a phone) reverses a second-half start for two minutes.

At the break the clock reads HT. If the first half runs past its length, the clock counts the added time after it, such as 45+2:10. In a senior match the first half keeps running until you end it, and anything logged in its 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 asks whether to end it. The second half simply counts on, so a goal deep in its stoppage time records at the minute it went in. A minute after full time, the clock pauses with a Full Time prompt, "The match has exceeded full time. The clock has been paused.", and you choose Continue Playing or End Match.

Senior grades can be set up differently by the club. Some use a simpler tracker with Kick off, End first half, Start second half and Full time, and it warns you before full time that it can't be undone. Others don't track live at all, and the page shows the match briefing instead.

Everything is logged from the pitch. Tap a player, then the event.

• Goals: tap the scorer and choose Goal, then tap the provider and choose Assist. For a goal against, tap the scoreboard to open Opponent Goals and press plus. Where the opponent's squad list is available it then asks Who Scored?, with Unknown Scorer always an option. Minus takes back a goal added by mistake.
• Substitutions: drag the replacement onto the pitch, or tap the player coming off and choose Replace. The minute and the positions are recorded for you.
• Cards: Yellow Card, then 2nd Yellow (Send Off) for a second, or Red Card. Clubhouse asks you to confirm a sending off.
• Junior development matches have no cards. The player menu offers Sin Bin (5 min) instead, and the match sheet afterwards calls it a time out.

If the game has to stop, end the half or match early and choose Match Abandoned from the warning. Pick the reason (Weather, Lightning, Extreme heat, Unsafe pitch, Player safety or Other) and confirm with Confirm Abandonment. The match can be resumed later from where it stopped, with Resume.

Every family following the squad gets the match as you log it, and so do you, because your own squad's live scores and results are switched on for you from the start. Nothing changes if the coach is tracking instead.

• At kick-off the match appears on their lock screen. On an iPhone it arrives as Match Started with the two teams, such as Harbourview FC vs Seacliff Strikers.
• Each goal is its own notification: Goal! with the scorer and minute when it's ours, Goal conceded when it isn't, each carrying the new score, like Harbourview FC 2-1 Seacliff Strikers.
• Half-time isn't a notification. Their lock screen switches to half-time and back.
• End Match sends Full Time with the final score. An abandoned match sends Match Abandoned with the minute it stopped.

Cards and substitutions aren't sent as notifications. They appear on the live match page, badged on the player:

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The rest of the family's day, from the arrival reminder to the link grandparents can watch on, is in Follow a match day.

Where your squad uses the full pitch tracker, anything mistapped can be corrected afterwards, with no time limit. Tap Make changes on the match summary to open the match sheet, with a row for each player, bars for time on the pitch and a marker for every goal, assist and card. Tap the wrong thing to correct it, or add what was missed. The post-match answer walks through it.

If a junior development match wasn't tracked at all, the summary says No events recorded and offers Add Events. Where no lineup was set either, Set Match Lineup then Confirm Lineup & Add Events lets you record the game from the team sheet.

The Notes tab on a finished match holds timed observations that only coaching staff can read, and saving one needs a coaching role on this squad. If managing is your only role here, pass what you saw to the coach instead, so it lands in their notes with the right minute.

• You and the coach agreed who was tracking, and nothing was logged twice.
• The score and scorers match what happened, corrected the same evening if needed.
• Every substitution was logged, so each player's minutes are right. Selection and development decisions rely on them all season.