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Peter Vossen Builders Matamata Swifts have signed off the 2010 season with a narrow loss in Hamilton against NRFL Division 1A winners, Hamilton Wanderers. A scrambled close range goal from the home side ten minutes before half time was the difference between two evenly matched and competitive sides.
That goal, as ugly as it was and scored on the bleakest stage imaginable, proved to be golden for  Wanderers as it secured them top spot in Division 1A and with it promotion to the Premier League for the 2011 season. The result didn’t harm the Swifts chances too much either, as only a loss by three goals or more would have dragged the team into the relagation play-offs.
As it turned out Matamata survived on goal difference.
The gloomy conditions and the soggy pitch didn’t make for the best of matches. Graft and grit were to the fore, ahead of skill and guile.
Once Wanderers had their goal in the bank they became more pragmatic, only attacking in ones and twos and leaving an extra man back. The Swifts found it difficult to break their hots down, with the one bright spot being an excellent long range Jon Allen drive that was clawed away by the Wanderers keeper.
The home side hit the outside of the upright during the second half, but there were few other clear cut goal scoring opportunities in a match they just shaded.
Ged Parkinson turned in another good shift at the back and was Matamata’s man of the match, while the midfield was again strong. The Swifts lost Pete Shannon early to his second ugly head cut of the season.
After the rather unusual shape of the league this season, things look likely to settle down to a regular home and away structure for the 2011 season. With confirmation of their place in division 1, the Swifts have effectively gained two promotions in the space of a season, moving from the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Federation league and leap-frogging NRFL division 2 in their first season back in the Northern League since 1998.
The Swifts will be the only Waikato/Bay of Plenty club in division 1, meaning even more travel to Auckland, and beyond, awaits.
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