Be careful, you are not doing what you think you are doing. The backslash in your string is being interpreted as an escape char. You want $second = 'matching\\.com'. Otherwise you are generating a match on "matching.com" which will match "matchingfcom", etc.
UPDATE: Disregard my inane comments. See below. I'm a moron. The big yellow one's the sun.
-pete
"Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere."