The Waitakere United Sentinel
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Nobody could get near James Rufer
Successful dribbles: 94. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Both of them Jai Singh's — 8.21
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.21, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Real improvement from Ben Rufer at Waitakere United
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ben Rufer is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market19 Oct 2026
Tommy Just asks to leave Waitakere United
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A late step up for Stefan Stamatelopoulos
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Sandile Ndlovu in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Waitakere United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Graduation day at Waitakere United
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad19 Oct 2026
James Rufer falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match17 Oct 2026
Jai Singh sends Waitakere United past Team Wellington
It finished 2‑1, and it was Jai Singh’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Waitakere United.
In brief
- Market Waitakere United promote Ben Lewis from within
- Market Waitakere United promote Ryan Colvey from within
- Market Alex Smith steps up from the Waitakere United academy