Metso Matamata Swifts put in a mistake-riddled second half performance against Melville United and paid for it as the home side ran up a scoreline that would have been scarcely believable at half time.

The Swifts grew in confidence after a shaky start, during which Melville opened the scoring in the first two minutes of the match. The equaliser, after half an hour, was more than deserved. Jason Collins rammed the ball home from close range. Matamata went behind right on the stroke of half time. The Swifts had a throw in in their defensive third, which went straight to a Melville player and then straight into the back of the net.

To say the first fifteen minutes of the second half were eventful would be an understatement. The Swifts had a glorious chance to equalise for a second time following good work by Hayri Cihan and Daniel Frischknecht, but Scott Parsonage miss-hit his shot and had it cleared off the line. Melville went then went straight up the other end of the field and scored. Within minutes they had scored twice more.

The Swifts battled on gamely and, despite conceeding two more goals, including once directly from a corner (yes, it was one of those days...) they at least had the pleasure of seeing youngster, Daniel Frischknecht, open his account with a sublime piece of skill. Frischknecht turned inside his defender and then, in the same movement, chipped the Melville keeper from fully thirty yards out. Another Swifts youngster, Dima Slack, almost found himself on the score sheet as well, so it wasn't all one way traffic.

Matamata played most of the match with only one recognised defender on the field. Ged Parkinson was unavailable, Swifts player/coach Duncan Lowry forced to sit the match out with an ankle injury and Dai Lowry blew his knee out after only a few minutes on the field. The resulting lack of balance didn't exactly help the Swifts performance.

Coach Lowry wasn't too dispondant after the match, though. "When you make mistakes against teams that are better than you they generally punish you for it. That was the case today. It seemed like everytime we made an error in the second half the ball ended up in the back of the net. It was tough for our guys, with several of them playing in unfamiliar positions, but that's what pre-season is all about."