The Waitakere United Sentinel
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A debut Deklan Singh will not forget — 7.28
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.28 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 10 of the 29 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market19 Oct 2026
Sam McCowatt hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Waitakere United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Real improvement from Michael Singh at Waitakere United
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Michael Singh is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Kosta De Vries has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
2 academy players handed senior numbers at Waitakere United
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Match17 Oct 2026
Waitakere United come up short against Team Wellington
Team Wellington left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Callum Van Hattum 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.
Market19 Oct 2026
One of our own: Michael Sutton joins the Waitakere United first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Michael Sutton is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
- Market Waitakere United promote Tommy Rufer from within
- Squad No hiding place for Samuel Okon
- Loan watch Chris Van Hattum counts the days