Te Puke 1-2 Swifts

Recap

Comag Matamata Swifts picked up their first win of 2019 at Te Puke on Saturday in their second Soccer Shop WaiBOP Premiership match of the season.

A much changed Swifts side got the match going positively when Radge Avergonzado slotted home early on. The goal should have settled any nerves but Matamata were their own worst enemies on a surface they failed to fully come to grips with over the 90 minutes.

Te Puke, whose players seemed to spend the match competing with each other to see who could kick the ball the furthest, hit back when a deflected free kick found the back of the net before half time.

The second half didn’t have much to recommend it. The Swifts slogged it out on a surface that made their much-maligned Pohlen Park training ground look half decent and eventually found a winner ten minutes from the end. Reuben Wiglesworth drove the ball home after another raid forward finally bore some positive fruit.

It wasn’t Matamata’s best day at the office, with the amount of personnel changes and the conditions leading to a disjointed performance, but the result was all that mattered on the day.