Matamata Swifts 0 v Tokoroa 3

Matamata Swifts sunk to their heaviest defeat of the season on Saturday as a more committed and aggressive Tokoroa side gunned them down at the Domain. The Swifts' performance was as wet as the weather and they got everything they deserved from their worst day at the office of the 2004 season.

As bad as Matamata was, they should probably have got something from the game; based on the goals they actually did concede, and when they went in. Horrendous individual defensive errors made life easier for the visitors than what it should have been.

The first half was the Dave Taylor show as the veteran Matamata 'keeper pulled off a string of fine saves to keep his side in the game. Ten minutes before the break, however, he was injured in a clash with a visiting striker and, while he managed to struggle through to half time, was unable to continue after that.

Tokoroa grabbed the opener in first half injury time as Taylor was left stranded by a defensive blunder and had to watch the Tokoroa striker smash the ball into an empty net.

Matamata's task was made more difficult not long after the restart as the overzealous match official reduced them to ten men. It took a while for the visitor's extra man to count as the Swifts enjoyed their best period of the match, but Tokoroa came back to wrap the game up with two goals in the last fifteen minutes.

The first was a Matamata own goal and the final goal, right on full time, came only seconds after the Swifts should have been awarded a penalty. Alberto Romero was bundled down just inside the box and, as the referee looked dumbly on, Tokoroa cleared the ball forward to one of their strikers who knocked the ball home. It kind of summed the whole day up, really.

Having said that, it would have been rough justice had the visitors not left with a clean sheet as the previously potent Matamata attack barely fired a shot in anger all day.

Bevan Shelley was named man of the match for Matamata.

Swifts squad 1-Dave Taylor (6-Jason Collins 46m); 12-Scott Hudson, 8-Dwayne Barlow, 4-Colin Taylor, 13-Marcelo Marquez (2-Emerson Fuchs 70m); 9-David Hyslop (3-Ian Moody 80m), 14-John Van Gog (c), 15-Alberto Romero, 5-Jamie Cox; 7-Bevan Shelley, 10-Joe Alves.

Other results
Claudelands 4 v Cambridge 0
Ngaruawahia 10 v Hamilton North 0
Putaruru 0 v West Hamilton 2
Wanderers (Bye).

Table corrected to update a previously incorrect result. West Hamilton beat Tokoroa 6-2 but the result was overturned because West Hamilton fielded a number of ineligable players. Because of this Tokoroa were awarded the match 2-0.