Top team finishes the year in top spirits
The Challenge Matamata Swifts Ladies team have finished their 2017 football season with yet another victory.
The team’s 3-2 win against Waikato Unicol in Hamilton on Sunday completed an excellent year of football for a team that was unexpectedly promoted to the Waikato’s top flight a week before the season started.
The Ladies took several weeks to get going but after their first win in May went on a long unbeaten run that included a Waikato Cup win over Cambridge, the region’s top women’s team.
Sunday’s win at the University came courtesy of goals from Patrice Morrison, Emilee Holmes, and captain Kerrie Cox and capped a season in which the team, under the guidance of new coach Nigel Leaver, has made significant improvement in terms of quality of performance and results.
Comag Matamata Swifts’ important Loaded WaiBOP Premiership match at Tauranga’s Old Blues, scheduled for Saturday, was one of several games in the Bay of Plenty that fell victim to some unseasonable weather.
This game will now likely be played at the end of September.
Richardson Racing Stables Matamata Reserves action, however.
They fought through the mud at the new WaiBOP Championship champions, Cambridge Reserves, but fell to a 2-0 defeat despite another competitive showing.
Two long range first half goals got the job done for Cambridge were in but the Swifts reserves put in another good showing with the team’s array of youngsters looking increasingly comfortable at this level.
The Swifts A team fell to a 5-0 defeat at Waikato Division A leaders Ngaruawahia in their penultimate game of the season. The team put in a reasonable perform- ance but were just beaten by a team with lots still to play for.
This Saturday the Matamata Domain hosts its final triple header of 2017.
Comag Matamata Swifts play Taupo in the main game, at 2.45pm, while the reserves play Te Puke at 12.30pm and the A team host Eastern City at 1pm.
At 9am the club hosts its first prizegiving event of September when the Mini-Kickers group of 4 to 7 year olds complete their season. Prizegiving for the club’s other junior teams is from 11am on Sunday September 17.