Metso Matamata Swifts grabbed an important victory on the road, defeating Bay of Plenty 1st division runners-up, Whakatane, in an tightly contested battle in the Eastern Bay.

These two evenly matched, defensively strong sides produced a match of few clear cut chances. From the outset it was obvious one goal would probably be enough to win the match, with 0-0 looking to be the betting man's choice as the most likely outcome. The Swifts were stronger through the middle of the park, while their opponents looked particularly lively out wide.

Alberto Romero, sitting in the hole behind the Swifts front two, had another strong game and was the team's best creative outlet. He had to handle a fair old battering as he was hacked to the ground on numerous occasions, but he just kept bouncing up and coming back for more. Ged Parkinson marshalled the team expertly at the back and had stirling support from all those surrounding him, most notably man of the match, Colin Taylor, and goalie, Gary Darkes.

The Swifts goal came from a most unlikely source - the right foot of the extremely left-footed Scott Parsonage. Half an hour into the match Parsonage capitalised on some good work from Neil Slater. Slater pressed the Whakatane keeper and one of their defenders into a mistake and then, having been bundled to the ground, nudged the ball to Parsonage to roll it home.

Matamata had to deal with a strong second half performance from the more youthful home side. Whakatane poked, pushed and prodded but didn't quite do enough to get back on level terms. They created a couple of openings but pushed the ball wide, while too often their final ball was either cut out by the Swifts defence or bashed into the wrong areas.

The Swifts looked a little ragged at times, coughing up a too much possession for the liking of their coaching staff. That kept the pressure on and the game interesting. They did have a couple more good chances, with Alberto Romero bending a free kick narrowly wide and Jason Collins just failing to get on the end of a dangerous cross.

The win sees the Swifts move to equal top of the Super League table, sitting alongside Ngongotaha and Taupo with all three sides on six points. Matamata next travels to Taupo to contest what is a must win game for both sides.