Peter Vossen Builders Matamata Swifts endured a nightmare trip to the big smoke for an afternoon when pretty much everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.

With six teenagers travelling it was a younger and less experienced than usual Swifts squad that entered the fray. Throw in a rough start that saw Albany open the scoring inside five minutes and Matamata lose a player on twenty minutes and it would be fair to say the Gods, if there are such things, were not smiling on the Swifts on this particular afternoon.

The opening goal was not something the Swifts defence will care to remember, but worse was to follow with the harsh sending off of centre back, Eddie Kennedy. Kennedy saw a close range shot drilled into an arm that was firmly locked by his side. Not only did the ref blow for a penalty, which some others could have waved away as being ball to hand, but pulled out his red card, much to the surprise of pretty much everyone at the ground.

So Matamata was two goals and a player down with the match still in its infancy. The Swifts reorganised themselves and survived the next fifteen minutes before heading strongly into the break. They worked a great opportunity for Mark Knell, who shot high, before Jason Feck surged forward and was brought down just outside the box. Stu Watene stepped up and curled home a delightful free kick to send the Swifts into the break with their tails up.

The high lasted until barely three minutes into the second half. The Swifts only half defended a free kick and, at the second attempt, Albany restored their two goal margin. The remainder of the second half was a character building exercise for Matamata as, with a man down, they spent much of the time chasing the ball. Albany scored twice more to underline their superiority on the day.

Young Harry Redwood was good on his debut for Matamata while Danny Styles dragged himself off his sick bed to put in another strong 90 minutes for the Swifts. Tom Pamment was Matamata’s stand-out performer, pulling off a number of saves in the Swifts goal to limit what could have been some pretty gruesome damage.