Marked for Deklan Lewis
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Canterbury United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
The step up is real for Reece Hill
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Winston De Vries and Canterbury United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Dec 2026
Every point is an argument now for Canterbury United
Position 5 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Deklan Lewis commits to Canterbury United for another 1 years.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Canterbury United, and 2 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Joe Tuiloma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Dec 2026
Hawke's Bay United left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 the manager left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Deklan Lewis makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
Liberato Garbett was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match28 Nov 2026
A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Squad30 Nov 2026
22 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Noah Garbett commits to Canterbury United for another 1 years.
Loan watch30 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Canterbury United, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Match28 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Bill Singh gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” the manager chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Liberato Garbett was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Deklan Lewis commits to Canterbury United for another 1 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.