Soccer: No close encounters of 3rd kind expected

With this weekend's draw a repeat of round three, which produced three draws and two narrow one-goal wins, the question is - will the return games produce the same close encounters?

Ngongotaha are on the road to meet Matamata Swifts and although the Villagers only won 2-1 at home, and Swifts have had some reasonable results of late, the competition leaders are growing in confidence and should prevail by a larger margin this time.

Meanwhile, Rotorua United host Taupo at Neil Hunt Park.

United put in arguably their best performance when they held Taupo to a scoreless draw at Crown Park and if they can repeat the form they could upset Taupo, who are having a poor season by their standards.

AFC Fury should not be troubled to repeat their 5-0 thrashing of bottom-of-the-table Otumoetai to keep their title challenge alive.

Melville United desperately need a win to halt their slide towards the relegation zone. Although their first meeting with Cambridge ended 2-2, the visitors will be favoured to take the points at Gower Park.

Whakatane Town and Tauranga City both shared the points in their first meeting and although Whakatane were beaten last week they will start favourites at Rex Morpeth Park.

Tauranga Old Blues beat Waikato Unicol 2-1 in round three but have not won a game in their last six outings. Even though they have home advantage Unicol could well knock them out of fourth place.

Division two draw tomorrow:

Matamata v Tauranga Boys' College, Rotorua United v Te Awamutu (Neil Hunt Park 12.30pm), Papamoa v Cambridge, Tokoroa v Hukanui Rototuna, West Hamilton v Tauranga City.