Unicol back on top
Waikato Unicol’s 5-0 victory over Rotorua United on Saturday put them back on top after Taupo and Matamata Swifts dropped points to lower-placed opposition.
Not for the first time this season Unicol demolished an opposing WaiBop Premiership football team at their Jansen Park base. Rotorua, who began the weekend in fourth place, conceded two goals from Luke Goodwin and further strikes from Simon Gibson, Jono Sargeant and an own goal.
The win was further evidence that Unicol should be considered favourites, however slight at this stage, to win a league that doesn’t yet seem to have a superior team. Their traditional energy has been coupled with a better spread of quality and they have a good balance between attack and defence.
Previous leaders Taupo are still unbeaten, but finished poorly to draw 2-2 at 10th-placed West Hamilton United.
Goals to Tom King and Eli Smith had Taupo two ahead, but a motivated West Hamilton struck back through Alex Whitehead and Matthew Palmer against a Taupo side that ended with 10 men.
Further evidence of the depth of the 2017 Premiership came in the league’s other two games, as Te Awamutu won 4-3 at Matamata Swifts to move into the top six, while Old Blues shook off last weekend’s disappointment to dismantle Cambridge 5-2 at home.
Te Awamutu ended Matamata’s recent good run with an energetic and resilient performance. They led 3-2 at the break courtesy of Joel Roil’s hat-trick and could have been further ahead had they not missed the first of their two penalties. Mike Dawson and Jamie Baxter scored Matamata’s goals, then Brad West drew the Swifts level inside the final 10 but Te Awamutu fashioned one final opportunity, which Haydn Roil slipped home.
Matamata are by far the league’s leading scorers but are shipping goals like a bottomhalf side and have to fix that to mount a serious title challenge.
Traditional Premiership heavyweights Cambridge stumbled at an Old Blues side that now sit level on the table with Matamata. Old Blues held a comfortable halftime advantage then completed the job in the second half against a Cambridge side that had a man sent off.
Karl Bryant, Bobby Barnes, Franz Marko and Andrew Cooper netted for the victors, along with an own goal, while Donovan Latham and Jordan Silvester replied for the visitors.
In the WaiBop Championship, leaders Cambridge Reserves dropped points at Old Blues Reserves after a 1-1 draw, but still sit top by a point after Otumoetai Reserves’ match at Tauranga City United was washed out.
That allowed Waikato Unicol’s Reserves to jump into second, ahead of Otumoetai on goal difference, after a 5-1 win over Rotorua United Reserves at home.