‘BIRDS’, MATSAPHA CLASH 2ND BIGGEST

MBABANE – It’s been proven – the fixture between elite league rookies Matsapha United and reigning league champions Mbabane Swallows is fast becoming second biggest fixture in the land.

The rookies appear to be a big threat to the traditional big three head-to-head fixtures, if figures for gate collections are anything to go by. Ordinarily, Highlanders against Manzini Wanderers are the second biggest fixture in the land but both sides have fallen from grace. Given events that happened between Highlanders and Matsapha in as far as players and officials’ movement is concerned, fans had anticipated the two clubs would turn out to be one of the biggest rivals in local football history after Swallows and Highlanders. However, that has not happened as statistics adduced from the crowd attendance during the Matsapha versus Swallows match, and then this past Sunday’s triple-header involving all big three sides being Swallows, Wanderers and Highlanders, who played Matsapha, suggest it was the most anticipated match so far this season after the Capital City derby.

A lump sum of E180 000, the second biggest collection at Mavuso Sports Centre since Wanderers hosted Highlanders over three seasons ago, was made. Worthy of mention is that the Swallows versus Matsapha fixture was the first of two on the night, as there was also to be less fancied Red Lions against Moneni Pirates later. The first match ended up starting just before 8pm due to a massive crowd that was still outside and kick off had to be delayed to avoid an imminent stampede. Fast forward to this past Sunday’s triple-header games at Somhlolo National Stadium – all three giants were home teams. Swallows took on Red Lions at 11.30am, Highlanders and Matsapha at 1.30pm before Wanderers collided with Sundowns at 3.30pm. All home sides are the leading crowd pullers of the local game but on the day, the crowd difference was not so much from the Mavuso game.

PLS’ COO Pat Vilakati confirmed yesterday that the triple-header raised E210 000, a E30 000 difference from the E180 000 made at Mavuso, where the match was also played on a Wednesday night. “It was a slightly bigger crowd as E210 000 was collected from the triple-header and each of the hosting teams received E48 000 after all deductions,” he said. When asked what the figures meant in terms of the fixtures pitting Matsapha and Swallows as well as Highlanders and Matsapha in terms of magnitude, Vilakati diplomatically said ‘Mavuso is easily accessible’ which explains why the crowd was so big during the Matsapha and Swallows game which ended goalless. In essence, Matsapha have made a bigger rivalry with Swallows than Highlanders and fans were looking forward to their inaugural league clash. The prevailing state of affairs started early in the year when Matsapha knocked Swallows out of the SwaziBank Cup and became the only team to beat them locally to date since last season.

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