Peter Vossen Builders Matamata Swifts have taken their fans on a magical mystery tour of the sublime and the curious during another entertaining afternoon of football at the Matamata Domain.

Two strikes from Stu Watene, each totally different but equal in their brilliance, helped nudge the Swifts ahead when it finally counted, following 90 minutes of fluctuating fortunes for both teams.

Matamata gifted the visitors a two goal start inside twenty minutes through some sloppy defending. The Swifts had starved their opponents of possession, but when their chances came Onehunga Mangere was good enough to bury them. Their lead was halved in the 32nd minute when youngster Glen Carmichael, on his Swifts debut, nodded the ball home.

The scores were level only minutes into the second half. A raking Ged Parkinson cross field pass found Watene wide on the left. The Swifts striker dragged the ball across his defender then curled the ball inside the far upright with his right foot.

By now the Swifts had an iron grip on the match but they managed to make things interesting when one of the visiting strikers beat the off-side trap (just) and calmly finished.

The Swifts piled numbers forward during the last twenty minutes in desperate search of at least a point. Their pressure was rewarded in the 88th minute when Watene burst into the box and was brought down by a defender who was powerless to do anything else. Right-back Jason Feck stepped up and calmly drive the ball home from the penalty spot.

The comeback was complete as the clock ticked into injury time. Matamata flooded the Onehunga Mangere box and the ball fell nicely to Watene who, with his back to goal took a chance and hooked the ball across his body and home from six yards out.

Not surprisingly Watene was later named Matamata’s man of the match. Coach Lowry also had words of praise for Parkinson and Eddie Kennedy at the back and congratulated Carmichael on his goal scoring debut.