2004 - The 'Almost' Season

Matamata Swifts began the 2004 football season with the realistic ambition of challenging for the Waikato Premier League title. At the end of it they had to settle for a hugely disappointing fifth, faltering badly over the final month or so with a depressing run of four defeats in five games.

A host of new signings helped add a depth and quality to the Swifts squad that was missing in 2003. Attacking midfielder, Jason Collins, made the move from near neighbours, Putaruru, while the supremely talented Scott Hudson joined from Levin. David Hyslop, Jamie Cox and John Van Gog rejoined the squad after taking a break in 2003, and the energetic Steve Beattie saw the light, jacking in the oval ball game for a chance to play real football. The Swifts were also treated to a mini South American invasion. Uruguayans Rodrigo Navarro, Marcelo Marquez and Alberto Romero and Brazilian, Emerson Fuchs, all wore the black and white of Matamata at various times during 2004.

After a solid, but unspectacular, pre-season the Swifts kicked off their Premier League campaign in Hamilton with a tough, but winnable, game against Wanderers. The Swifts had toyed with several different formations, including an ambitious 3-4-3, in their warm-up games, but eventually settled on a more predictable 3-5-2 for the season opener. Three terrible defensive errors meant the team sunk to a 3-2 defeat, but there were several to emerge from the match. Joe Alves opened his goal scoring account for the season on the same ground on which he had shattered his leg almost exactly two years ago, while the side played with a style that promised plenty of goals in future games.

Unfortunately those goals didn't in the Swifts home opener against Putaruru. The side sunk to an embarrassing 2-0 defeat, but what was worse was the manner of their performance. An uninspiring effort left the Swifts at the wrong end of the table and a step behind their title rivals before the season had hardly begun.

Fortunes improved for the Swifts in their next match, a home game against Hamilton North. Changing to a more solid 4-4-2, the Swifts had an early goal from Rodrigo Navarro to set them on their way to a 9-0 victory. This was the largest win by a Swifts side in a decade. Hat-tricks to Jamie Cox, in his first start of the season, and Joe Alves helped Matamata to their huge winning margin.

A routine 3-0 victory at Tokoroa in their next match was followed, a week later, by one of the most dramatic conclusions to a game in Matamata Swifts history. The Swifts looked dead as they trailed Cambridge 3-0 at half time and then 4-2 with only six minutes remaining, but they still managed to secure the three points. Goals to Bevan Shelley and David Hyslop drew the scores level, then Jamie Cox slipped in a sneaky winner, with only a few seconds on the clock, to leave his side ecstatic and the fans in raptures.

The Cambridge victory let the Swifts enter their next match, away to title favourites Claudelands Rovers, with a reasonable amount of confidence. A superb first half performance was capped by a Jason Collins strike to give Matamata the lead at the break. The home side stuck back after the interval with a couple of goals, although the first, from a dodgy-as-hell penalty decision, turned the game. Claudelands were deserving, if slightly fortunate, 2-1 victors.

Matamata refound the winning feeling in their next two matches. They bounced back with a solid 4-0 win at lowly West Hamilton and then followed that up with some more fantasy football in their home fixture against Ngaruawahia. The Swifts carried a 3-1 lead into the interval after an excellent first half performance, but no-one at the Domain could have known what was in-store for the side after the break. The previously sound, but suddenly card-crazy, ref began the madness not long after his half time drink (who knows what was in his water?!). When the dust settled he had sent four Matamata players from the field, but the Swifts emerged with a 4-1 victory. Jason Collins wrapped the win up for Matamata with a goal when his side still had nine players on the field. This match truly had everything.

Unfortunately, the victory wasn't to be repeated the next weekend. Matamata lost their first game of the second round, the return fixture against Wanderers, 2-1 following a flat performance. After letting in another couple of soft goals, an affliction they seemed to be cursed with when playing this team, they got back into the match with another Joe Alves strike. The equaliser always looked like coming but it never materialised, leaving the Matamata players hugely frustrated.

Order was restored in Putaruru the following Saturday as the Swifts raced out to a 4-0 half time lead. Although Matamata ran out of gas and failed to add to the scoreline, they gained some sort of revenge for their early season defeat. Joe Alves, in the middle of a golden goal scoring run, grabbed two more and was joined on the score sheet by Bevan Shelley and Jason Collins, who was delighted to score against his old club. This victory moved the Swifts to second on the table, the highest position they were to attain all season. Disaster was just around the corner.

A lazy 3-0 victory at Hamilton North, with the goals coming late, should have been the warning the side needed, but it wasn't heeded.

The real low point of the season came over the course of eight days in mid-July. First, the Swifts sunk to a 3-0 home defeat against Tokoroa, a side they hadn't lost to since 2001. It was an insipid Swifts effort, their worst of the season, as they failed to counter the commitment of their opponents. Even worse was to come the next weekend as the Swifts failed to get a team on the field. Nine players were forced to watch the clock tick slowly towards kick-off time as they waited in the Cambridge car park. The remaining players in the squad were held up at work and Matamata was forced to hand over the points without even kicking a ball in anger.

What turned out to be the Swift's final home match of the season followed, and they did their best to make Claudelands work before wrapping up the championship. Matamata matched their in-form opponents, but they couldn't catch a break and fell to a 2-0 defeat. The points secured the title for the visitors and continued the all to familiar what-might-have-been thoughts for Matamata.

The Swifts did secure a final victory of the season as West Hamilton defaulted the penultimate match of the season. Matamata finished the season with a 4-1 defeat in Ngaruawahia. Down on confidence, the side competed well, but just couldn't manage one final, supreme, effort. It didn't help that John Van Gog, Colin Taylor, Scott Hudson and Steve Beattie were all forced to miss the match due to work commitments.

What might have been, indeed.



The end of another season...