Swifts switch into cruise control mode
Comag Matamata Swifts cruised to a comfortable 4-0 victory over Papamoa on Saturday to claim their ninth Loaded WaiBOP Premiership win of the season.
Matamata created chances throughout the match but were far from their clinical best. Dayne Willemsen scored twice in the first half to give the Swifts what would always be a match winning lead against disappointing opposition, then captain Scott Parsonage nodded home from a corner just after the restart to put the game to bed.
From there the Swifts should have pushed on to a goal difference boosting victory, but instead kind of muddled their way through the rest of the match. The final goal came only a couple of minutes from the end when Glen Carmichael headed home.
This was a typically eclectic performance from a Matamata side that was never in any danger of losing, let alone conceding a goal.
At times the team looked good going forward, but they were extremely wasteful in front of goal.
Coach Paul Richardson will be hoping his team were saving up those goals for when they player stronger opposition.
The win moved Matamata back into the top five of a tight Premiership table.
With seven games to play the Swifts still have a good chance of climbing higher, but they’ll need to get themselves on a consistent run of form as they take on teams that will be just as hungry for victory.
In the early game the Richard- son Racing Stables conceded several late goals to lose 5-1 to Hamilton Wanderers in a performance that had been encouraging for the first hour or so.
Jasom Khatkar gave Matamata the lead midway through the first half, before Wanderers equalised right on half time. As the team tired their experienced opponents capitalised to first take the lead then blow the score out.
The Swifts A team lost 5-0 to Waikato Division A leaders, Melville United. The team competed well but Melville is a team stacked full of players with recent experience of football at a level higher than the local Waikato leagues.