Hamilton Wanderers 3 v Matamata Swifts 2

Two goals following individual defensive errors midway through the second half proved costly for Matamata Swifts as they began their 2004 Waikato Premier League campaign with a road defeat to Hamilton Wanderers. After a solid pre-season build-up, and the signing of a host of new players, the Swifts entered the match confidant of breaking the hex that had seen the team lose their opening game of the last four seasons.

Unfortunately a jinx such as this is not something that is easy to break. And so it proved on this occasion as the Swifts, despite being the stronger side for much of the match, came home empty handed.

A tight first half was noticeable for a lack of clear-cut goalscoring opportunities as both teams battled to come to terms with the heat and the tennis ball bounce of the ball on the concrete-hard surface. The Swifts had the game in their hands from the outset but couldn't carve out the opening goal they needed. They won corner after corner during the first twenty minutes but just couldn't convert their pressure in to reward against a well organised Wanderers rear-guard.

Half an hour in Wanderers grabbed the opener from their first real chance of the match. The Swifts missed a defensive header, allowing the Wanderers centre forward to poke the ball home from close range. Within minutes, the home side had missed another gilt-edged chance and forced a superb reflex save out of Swifts goalie, Ian Moody. Thankfully, for the Swifts, things soon calmed down.

Not long into the second half the match was back in the balance as Swift's centre forward, Joe Alves, scrambled home the equaliser. Alves, always the predator, nudged the ball home from inside the six-yard box following yet another corner. With the Swifts in the ascendancy once again, more goals looked on the cards. The bad news for Matamata was that, frustratingly, and avoidably, they came at the wrong end. Wanderers capitalised on two defensive botch-ups by the Swifts within a couple of minutes of each other to totally deflate the Swifts players and management and put the game seemingly out of reach.

Matamata made things exciting with less than five minutes remaining. Scott Hudson smashed home his first goal for the club following the crazy pin-balling of the ball around the Wanderers box. It wasn't quite enough as time ran out for the Swifts. Interestingly, less than 30 seconds of added time was played despite, on a number of occasions, it taking longer than this retrieve the ball from the wide open expanses of Porritt Stadium.

Man of the match for Matamata was midfielder David Hyslop, whose efforts were well supported by standout performances from captain John Van Gog, also in midfield, and Colin Taylor at the back. Adam Graham looked sharp up front and was unfortunate to find the Wanderers goalie in fine form, twice being denied goals by fine reflex saves.

Swifts squad 1-Ian Moody; 3-Rob Cox (16-Sho Nakagawa 35m), 4-Colin Taylor, 7-Bevan Shelley; 12-Scott Hudson, 6-Jason Collins (8-Rodrigo Navarro 80m), 14-John Van Gog (c), 11-Steve Beattie; 9-David Hyslop; 2-Adam Graham, 10-Joe Alves (5-Jamie Cox 65m).

Other results
Hamilton North 3 v Tokoroa 2
Putaruru 4 v Claudelands 2
West Hamilton 2 v Ngaruawahia 2
Cambridge (Bye)