After spending 2015 in Australia, the 30-year-old goalkeeper has returned to bring a wealth of experience to Southern United. He will line up against Canterbury United at Forsyth Barr Stadium tomorrow, as the side looks to improve on its 1-0 opening loss to Hamilton Wanderers.
Little brings back a winning attitude, too, having played for the State League 1 championship-winning Mornington team in Melbourne.
"There’s a lot of players over there, a lot more competition, a lot more teams. Most of the teams over there pay good money, too," he said.
"I think I was quite lucky the team I went to had a really good atmosphere. Everyone got along really well. But once you start paying players big bucks there’s going to be a couple of niggles in the changing rooms, things like that.
"But overall Melbourne’s a really good place to go and play, a really good experience."
It was the latest highlight of a career which has included stints in Scotland, England, Auckland — he went to the World Club Championship with Auckland City — and the 2008 Olympic Games. Born in Whangarei, Little grew up in Sydney before moving to the UK for five years as a teenager. From England he relocated to Dunedin. Since returning from Melbourne, Little has claimed a club title with Caversham, which won all its 18 games in the Southern Premier Competition this year.
Over the past four years, Little has been one of the owners of the Dunedin branch of Playball. It involves visiting primary schools and taking school holiday programmes to help develop children’s skills and movement. It was something he had enjoyed getting back into after being away.
Having had plenty of experience with Southern United previously, Little said things were heading in the right direction.
"The pre-season was really good," he said.
"We’ve done a lot of sessions. We were training five times a week — really intense.
"Everything’s been really organised. The coaches they’ve got in have been doing a really good job and the imports they brought in have been really good for us as well.
"It just looks a lot more positive than it has the past couple of years. Hopefully, we can start climbing up the table.
"We’ve finished bottom the last two or three years in a row and that’s not really an option anymore."
Southern United will face a stiff challenge tomorrow, against a Canterbury United side which has consistently been a playoff team in recent years. The two sides met pre-season, with Canterbury claiming a 2-0 win.
However, Canterbury got its season off to as disappointing start last weekend with a 2-2 draw against Tasman United. Little said Southern United was quietly confident, although it would have to contain the threat of Aaron Clapham in the midfield and striker Stephen Hoyle, who has moved south from Waikato-Bay of Plenty.
For Southern United, taking its chances will be important. The side dominated the second half in last week’s loss, but emerged with nothing to show for its efforts.
• The match will be televised live on SkySport at 4.35pm on Sunday.
Southern United v Canterbury United
FB Stadium, tomorrow, 4.30pm
Southern United: Liam Little, Conor O’Keeffe, Craig Ferguson, Stephen Last, Danny Ledwith, Eric Molloy, Michael Hogan, Harley Rodeka, Andy Mulligan, Ross Howard, Andrew Ridden, Tom Stevens, Sam Collier, Cam Higgins, Cam McPhail, Chris Kessell.
Canterbury United: Tom Batty, Dan Terris, Felix Komolong,Tom Schwarz, Gary Ogilvie, Matthew Wiesenfarth, Aaron Clapham, Aaron Spain, Juan Chang Urrea, Andre de Jong, Andreas Wilson, Brock Messenger, Stephen Hoyle, Daniel Thoms, Colin van Gool.
