Former National Soccer League champions Wollongong Wolves maintained their unbeaten start to the 2002-3 season at WIN Stadium on October 11, as the Football Kingz held them to a scoreless draw in front of 3681 fans.      The home team enjoyed the better of the early exchanges, but Kingz 'keeper Michael Utting was little troubled by the efforts of Shane Lyons and Dustin Wells during this period, much like Steven Turner's 25-yard drive failed to test Wolves' goalkeeper, Andrew Crews, as the visitors looked to retort amidst a tidy spell of possession football.      Both teams employed three players in attack, which meant enterprising football was prominent throughout. But to their credit, the defences of both teams stood firm in the face of their opponents, although the visitors' custodian was the busier of the two goalkeepers as the match wore on.      The first save Utting had to make was a fortuitous one, Naum Sekulovski shooting straight at the recovering goalkeeper, after David Huxley's flighted ball had seen the sphere spill free off the Kingz number one, as he was challenged in the air by Lyons in the nineteenth minute.      Talented Chilean international Patricio Almendra then gave Crews cause for concern at the other end of the park, the striker's first effort, after a delightful interchange with Harry Ngata and Raf de Gregorio, culminating in a twenty-yard drive which the Wolves' goalkeeper had to smother low to his right.      Soon after, Almendra should have done better with an eight yard headed effort, which he directed over the crossbar following a Mark Atkinson raid down the raid which enjoyed the assistance of Jeff Campbell and Andy Vlahos on the other side of the penalty area before the opportunity presented itself to the Kingz South American playmaker.      Sekulovski set his sights soon after, his twenty yard drive sizzling past the post after the impressive Liam Austin had pounced on a Campbell error on the left. Seconds later, Sekulovski himself was to benefit from a Hiroshi Miyazawa error, but the striker's cross, intended for the incoming Zeljko Babic, was pounced on by Utting, whose anticipation in this match was exceptional.      The New Zealand international then produced a splendid reflex save to thwart Babic at close quarters, after Wells and Sekulovski had prised open the Kingz defence in the 33rd minute. Utting was rooted to the spot soon after, however, as roving Wolves' playmaker, Stuart Young, let fly from the edge of the penalty with a low shot which flew mere inches wide of the left-hand post.      The Kingz goalkeeper denied both Austin and Babic in similar fashion before the interval, in both cases racing off his line to force both players to shoot early, and wide. After the break, he was again on hand to deny Babic - a headed opportunity this time, this after Vlahos had squandered the first opening of the second spell, blazing over after Almendra's thirty-yard grass-cutting pass had pierced the Wollongong rearguard.      The home team finally found a way round Utting on the hour mark, but the well-performed Young, of all people, made a meal of the opportunity which afforded itself. Babic slipped Sekulovski to the byline, the striker round the Kingz 'keeper in the process. Jonathan

Taylor - the game's best defender - headed clear, but only to Huxley, whose mistimed shot ricocheted back to Sekulovski. With Utting recovering, the striker rolled the ball into Young's path, but the former Arsenal employee fired a salvo of the high, wide and handsome variety from ten yards out. Taylor, de Gregorio and Miyazawa were to thwart Babic in the next ten minutes, as the striker sought to break the deadlock, while Almendra was a couple of licks of paint away from achieving the same objective at the other end of the park in between times, his rasping twenty-five yard drive blistering the paintwork of Crews' left-hand upright, after a short corner from newly-introduced substitute, Paul Urlovic, caught Wollongong napping. Eighteen minutes from time, an even better chance fell Babic's way, after Austin had robbed Vlahos on the Kingz left. The defender steamed forward before releasing his front-running team-mate, whose options inside him were blocked by Taylor's presence. From the edge of the goal area, Babic opted for power rather than subtlety, and sent his shot careering across the face of the target as a result. Wollongong continued to press, Utting smothering Lyons' low cross at the feet of the incoming Wells, before Austin sent a clever curling effort narrowly over the crossbar. Wells then went closer still, lifting the ball wide of the target from an ever-decreasing angle, after Young and Sekulovski had engineered the opening on the left. This was to be the Wolves' last chance, for the final minutes of the match saw the Kingz go desperately close to clinching what would have been an undeserved win. Vlahos and Urlovic played a lovely one-two on the edge of the penalty area with time all but up on the clock, the former letting fly with a twenty-yard screamer which had "Top far corner" written all over it. Robert Stanton's timely intervention - he was the only one who got close to the ball, and clearly didn't like the message appearing on it, so headed the sphere to safety - forced a corner, from which a goalmouth scramble resulted. Urlovic found himself with a shooting chance inside the six-yard box, only for Huxley's despairing lunge to force him to shoot narrowly wide of the target with the last opportunity of the match. A point apiece was the outcome, with the Kingz likely to be the happier team, as Wollongong certainly had the better opportunities to clinch all three points. But this is the third game, of four, in which the New Zealand side has failed to breach the opposition's goal-line - no prizes for guessing what is likely to be high on the Football Kingz training agenda throughout the coming week!! A word, too, for debutant NSL referee James Lewis. At twenty-four, he is younger than a good third of the players on the park, but gave an authoritative display which earned their respect and showed some of his peers that it's not always necessary to issue a plethora of cards to keep the peace. Well done, that man! Wollongong:     Crews; Austin, Stanton, Cervinski; Lyons, Wells (Castro, 85), Huxley, Farah; Babic (Heffernan, 85), Young, Sekulovski Kingz:          Utting; Van Steeden (Dempsey, 77), Miyazawa, Taylor (booked, 82); Atkinson, Turner, de Gregorio, Campbell (Urlovic, 67); Almendra, Ngata, Vlahos Referee:     James Lewis