Canterbury United Dragons

Canterbury United Dragons was a semi-professional football club from Christchurch, New Zealand. The team plays most of its matches at English Park in Christchurch, though they occasionally play in Nelson. The club last played in the ISPS Handa Premiership, the now folded top level of football in New Zealand.

Canterbury United Dragons

Full name	Canterbury United Dragons
Nickname(s)	The Dragons
Founded	2002; 23 years ago (2002)
Dissolved	2021; 4 years ago (2021)[1]
Ground	English Park, Christchurch
Capacity	3,000
Chairman	Julian Bowden
Manager	Lee Padmore
League	ISPS Handa Premiership
2019–20	10th (regular season)
Home colours Away colours
Current season

History

Chart of yearly ladder positions for Canterbury United in NZ 1st division soccer

The club was founded in 2002 as a conglomerate of various Christchurch area clubs, in order to form a strong team to take part in the 2002 New Zealand National Soccer League.^[2] In 2004, the league was replaced by the New Zealand Football Championship, run on a regional franchise basis, and Canterbury United became one of the eight competing teams.^[3]

In Canterbury United's first season in the New Zealand Football Championship they missed out on the playoffs by four competition points, ultimately finishing fourth.^[3] In 2007, the club rebranded themselves as the "Canterbury United Dragons" with a new logo and mascot.^[4]

Current squad

As of 23 January 2021^[5]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  NZL Eddie Ashton 3 DF  NZL Ben Stroud 5 DF  ENG Tom Schwarz 6 DF  NZL Matthew Jones 7 MF  ENG George King 8 DF  NZL Luke Tongue 9 FW  IRL Garbhan Coughlan 10 FW  NZL Ihaia Delaney 12 MF  NZL Samuel Field 13 DF  NZL Andrew Storer

No. Pos. Nation Player 14 DF  NZL Sean Liddicoat 15 MF  NZL Max Chretien 16 MF  NZL Cory Mitchell 17 DF  NZL Simon Chretien 18 FW  JPN Yuya Taguchi 19 FW  RSA Lyle Matthysen 20 DF  NZL Jacob Richards 21 DF  NZL Caleb Cottom 22 GK  NZL Danny Knight 24 MF  NZL Edward Wilkinson

Club Officials

Coaching and Medical Staff^[6]

• Head coach: Lee Padmore
• Assistant coach: Dan Terris
• Goalkeeping coach: Alan Stroud
• Manager: Marcus Beaton
• Strength and conditioning: James Deehan
• Video analysis: Jesse Rawlings
• Sports science: Blair Minton
• Performance/wellbeing: Martin Field Dodgson
• Physiotherapist: James McCormack
• Club doctor: Phil Fletcher

Managers

• Danny Halligan (1 July 2006 – 4 February 2008)
• Korouch Monsef (5 February 2008 – 30 June 2009)
• Keith Braithwaite (1 July 2009 – 30 June 2013)
• Sean Devine (1 July 2014^[7] – 21 April 2015)^[8]
• Willy Gerdsen (1 July 2015 – 14 June 2019)^[9]
• Lee Padmore (1 July 2019 – Current)

Honours

ASB Phoenix Challenge^[10]

• Winners (1): 2012

ASB Premiership Youth League

• Winners (2): 2009–10, 2011–12^[11]

Statistics and records

Year-by-year history

Wellington League History

Season	Teams	League Ladder Position	Finals Qualification	Finals Position
2002	10	5th	did not qualify
2003	10	6th	did not qualify
2004–05	8	4th	did not qualify
2005–06	8	3rd	Qualified for Playoffs	Runners-up
2006–07	8	4th	did not qualify
2007–08	8	8th	did not qualify
2008–09	8	8th	did not qualify
2009–10	8	4th	Qualified for Playoffs	Runners-up
2010–11	8	4th	Qualified for Playoffs	3rd
2011–12	8	2nd	Qualified for Playoffs	3rd
2012–13	8	3rd	Qualified for Playoffs	3rd
2013–14	8	5th	did not qualify
2014–15	9	8th	did not qualify
2015–16	8	4th	Qualified for Playoffs	3rd
2016–17	10	6th	did not qualify
2017–18	10	3rd	Qualified for Playoffs	3rd
2018–19	10	3rd[12]	Qualified for Playoffs	3rd
2019–20	10	10th	No playoffs due to Covid-19[13]

Season summaries

Season Stats

Season	Pos	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
2002	5	8	4	6	31	30	+1	28
2003	6	7	5	6	34	34	0	26
2004–05	4	7	6	8	31	38	-7	27
2005–06	3	13	2	6	36	22	+14	41
2006–07	4	9	4	8	33	30	+3	31
2007–08	8	3	3	15	22	48	-26	12
2008–09	8	2	2	10	11	32	-21	8
2009–10	4	5	3	6	23	16	+7	18
2010–11	4	6	2	6	20	19	+1	20
2011–12	2	9	2	3	38	12	+26	29
2012–13	3	9	1	4	34	19	+15	28
2013–14	5	6	4	4	22	16	+6	22
2014–15	8	4	2	10	22	32	-10	14
2015–16	4	8	2	4	28	23	+5	26
2016–17	6	6	6	6	32	28	+4	24
2017–18	3	11	3	4	35	20	+15	36
2018–19	3	10	4	4	34	29	+5	34
2019–20	10[nb 1]	2	4	10	19	36	-17	10

Notes

1. Season finished early due to Covid-19^[13]