diff --git a/cfg/config.go b/cfg/config.go
index dfb057c..01026db 100644
--- a/cfg/config.go
+++ b/cfg/config.go
@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@ type SyntaxCriteria struct {
 	Colour  int      `toml:"colouring"`
 	Match   []string `toml:"match"`
 	Pattern string   `toml:"pattern"`
+
+	MatchList map[string]bool
 }
 
 type Command struct {
diff --git a/cfg/loader.go b/cfg/loader.go
index fab80b2..311e333 100644
--- a/cfg/loader.go
+++ b/cfg/loader.go
@@ -120,17 +120,38 @@ func configureAndValidate(conf *TomlConfig) {
 
 	log.Println("Syntax Highlighting")
 	{
+		syntaxSet := []*LanguageSyntaxConfig{}
+
 		conf.associations = map[string]*LanguageSyntaxConfig{}
 
 		for lang, extSet := range conf.Associations {
 			log.Println(lang, "=>", extSet.Extensions)
 			languageConfig := loadSyntaxDef(lang)
+			syntaxSet = append(syntaxSet, languageConfig)
 
 			for _, ext := range extSet.Extensions {
 				log.Println("registering", ext, "as", lang)
 				conf.associations[ext] = languageConfig
 			}
 		}
+
+		// go through each language
+		// and store the matches keywords
+		// as a hashmap for faster lookup
+		for _, language := range syntaxSet {
+			for _, syn := range language.Syntax {
+				syn.MatchList = map[string]bool{}
+
+				for _, item := range syn.Match {
+					if _, ok := syn.MatchList[item]; ok {
+						log.Println("Warning duplicate match item '" + item + "'")
+						continue
+					}
+
+					syn.MatchList[item] = true
+				}
+			}
+		}
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/cfg/syntax.go b/cfg/syntax.go
index 53e4407..3af423a 100644
--- a/cfg/syntax.go
+++ b/cfg/syntax.go
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 package cfg
 
 type LanguageSyntaxConfig struct {
-	Syntax map[string]SyntaxCriteria `toml:"syntax"`
+	Syntax map[string]*SyntaxCriteria `toml:"syntax"`
 }
 
 type DefaultSyntax map[string]string
@@ -28,10 +28,10 @@ match = [
 colouring = 0xf0a400
 match = [
 	"for", "break", "if", "else", "continue", "return",
-	"goto", "static", "extern", "const", "typedef",
+	"goto", "extern", "const", "typedef",
 	"struct", "union", "register", "enum", 
 	"do", "static", "sizeof", "volatile", "unsigned",
-	"switch", "case", "goto", "default"
+	"switch", "case", "default"
 ]
 
 [syntax.string_literal]
diff --git a/gui/buffer.go b/gui/buffer.go
index 09eb968..c45bf70 100644
--- a/gui/buffer.go
+++ b/gui/buffer.go
@@ -780,7 +780,10 @@ func lexFindMatches(matches *map[int]syntaxRuneInfo, currLine string, toMatch ma
 	// start up a lexer instance and
 	// lex the line.
 	lexer := lex.New(currLine)
-	for _, tok := range lexer.Tokenize() {
+
+	tokenStream := lexer.Tokenize()
+
+	for _, tok := range tokenStream {
 		if _, ok := toMatch[tok.Lexeme]; ok {
 			(*matches)[tok.Start] = syntaxRuneInfo{bg, -1, len(tok.Lexeme)}
 		}
@@ -790,7 +793,7 @@ func lexFindMatches(matches *map[int]syntaxRuneInfo, currLine string, toMatch ma
 func (b *Buffer) syntaxHighlightLine(currLine string) map[int]syntaxRuneInfo {
 	matches := map[int]syntaxRuneInfo{}
 
-	subjects := make([]cfg.SyntaxCriteria, len(b.languageInfo.Syntax))
+	subjects := make([]*cfg.SyntaxCriteria, len(b.languageInfo.Syntax))
 	colours := make([]int, len(b.languageInfo.Syntax))
 
 	idx := 0
@@ -833,16 +836,9 @@ func (b *Buffer) syntaxHighlightLine(currLine string) map[int]syntaxRuneInfo {
 				}
 			}
 		} else {
-			// FIXME bit of cleanup is due here!
-
-			matchList := make(map[string]bool, len(syntax.Match))
-			for _, val := range syntax.Match {
-				matchList[val] = true
-			}
-
 			background := colours[syntaxIndex]
 			foreground := 0
-			lexFindMatches(&matches, currLine, matchList, background, foreground)
+			lexFindMatches(&matches, currLine, syntax.MatchList, background, foreground)
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/lex/token.go b/lex/token.go
index f83ce31..fe93d22 100644
--- a/lex/token.go
+++ b/lex/token.go
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 package lex
 
+import "fmt"
+
 type TokenType uint
 
 const (
@@ -14,4 +16,8 @@ type Token struct {
 
 func NewToken(lexeme string, kind TokenType, start int) *Token {
 	return &Token {lexeme, kind, start}
+}
+
+func (t *Token) String() string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf("lexeme: %s, type %s, at pos %d", t.Lexeme, t.Type, t.Start)
 }
\ No newline at end of file