In one of the most enjoyable National Soccer League matches seen on this side of the Tasman Sea this season, the Football Kingz secured a 3-2 victory over North Harbour Stadium on March 17 to keep alive their hopes of making the play-offs in their inaugural season in the competition. The quality of football seen in the first fifteen minutes alone was most enterprising, and set the standard for the remainder of the match. Incredibly, despite the wealth of quality passing which was seen during this phase, just one chance of note came to pass, Wynton Rufer curling a twenty-yarder narrowly over the crossbar five minutes into play. Jeff Campbell, making his first start for the home side, was next to go close, his seventeenth minute drive through a crowded penalty area being blocked to safety by Northern Spirit's rearguard, after they had failed to adequately deal with Lee Jones' teasing free-kick. Four minutes later, the Kingz took a deserved lead. And like three of the four other goals which were to come in this match, it was well worth the admission money. Jonathan Perry broke through from halfway before abruptly changing direction and playing the ball out to John Lammers, wide on the right. The Dutch striker was full of deft touches and silky skills throughout this encounter, and on this occasion he picked out Rufer's rampaging run with a made-to-measure cross towards the edge of the penalty area. The Kingz player-coach, much to the delight of the 3,562-strong crowd, displayed some of the silky skills with which he made his name in Europe, expertly killing the ball in his stride with his right foot before stabbing it clinically past the diving figure of Paul Henderson with his left peg to open the scoring, all this being executed despite having little room in which to work, courtesy the close attention of two defenders. After Lammers had been thwarted by the alertness of Henderson - the goalkeeper had to scamper off his line to clear the danger as the striker pursued Marcus Stergiopoulos' raking clearance - the visitors began to impose themselves on proceedings, led by experienced captain Robbie Slater. Two minutes before the interval, Spirit equalised, and how! Rufer was unable to reach a Lammers cross, Troy Cranney gathering possession near his own goal and setting off upfield. He sped away from Rufer, then rounded Campbell, who stuck doggedly to the task and had a second go, to no avail. By this time, Cranney's run had taken him fifteen yards into the Kingz half, at which point he changed the point of the attack, picking out Michael Cunico with a fine pass. The midfielder latched onto the ball and delivered a cross towards the far post which, in all honesty, the Kingz defence should have dealt with. But they failed to, much to David Seal's delight, the ball falling perfectly for him to unleash a splendid volley into the top left-hand corner of Michael Utting's net to level the scores right on half-time. Ian Crook, Spirit's former England B international, sparked the second half into life within three minutes of the resumption, his twenty-five yard free-kick flying narrowly past Utting's post. The Kingz responded promptly, Perry heading a deep Campbell corner narrowly past the post, moments before Rufer's free-kick, hit hard and low from the edge of the penalty area, was spilled by Henderson. Northern Spirit survived that 52nd minute scare, but were out of luck three minutes later as the Kingz took the lead for the second time. Capitalising on the space created ahead of him by Kingz debutant Noah Hickey, Jones fired over a super cross from the right, which was dropping perfectly for Lammers to execute a bicycle kick. He never made contact, however, but the gentle

nudge which prompted his premature landing was spotted by referee Simon Micallef, who immediately pointed to the penalty spot. Up stepped Harry Ngata, who found the back of the net despite Henderson's best efforts to deny him. On the hour, Lammers squandered a splendid chance to extend the Kingz lead to 3-1, the ball getting stuck between his feet as he sought to convert a Rufer-inspired raid which featured a deft one-two between the player-coach and Campbell. At the time, it seemed to be a crucial miss, as Spirit drew level once more just three minutes later. This time, Tony Perinich stole in on the blindside of the Kingz defence, only for Ivan Vicelich to partially block his cross. The ball fel invitingly for Cranney, however, the midfielder lashing home a thumping volley into Utting's top left-hand corner from the edge of the penalty area - yet another cracking strike in a match high on quality, and the most memorable of all was still to come. Before it did, Crook brought the best out of Utting, who made a tremendous save low to his left to thwart Spirit's player-assistant coach's venomous twenty-five yard free-kick in the 67th minute. The Kingz immediately countered, led by the lively figure of Marcus Stergiopoulos down the right. His inviting cross left Henderson beaten all ends up, but Rufer was on too acute an angle to capitalise on the chance, while Matthew Bingley led the defence in preventing both Lammers and Campbell from finding the target. As goalscorers go, Perry is far more likely to be found involved in the approach play than in the role of executioner. His match-winning strike against Sydney Olympic here a fortnight ago was just the All White wing-back's second goal of the season, but is has clearly left him with a desire to experience the sensation on a more regular basis. Come the 69th minute, he found the mark for a third time, and what a match-winning strike it turned out to be - an absolute snorter, in fact! As Stergiopoulos surged through the middle with ball at toe, Perry made an inspired run into the inside-right channel, which his team-mate spotted and rewarded with a superbly weighted pass struck with the outside of the right foot. It completely wrong-footed Spirit, who turned to find Perry arriving at pace with the ball dropping tantalisingly for him. Despite having time and space aplenty in which to take a touch and pick his spot, Perry, who was now sporting a headband to protect a cut above his right eye, went for the volley, and caught it perfectly. Henderson didn't stand a chance as the ball screamed into the top left-hand corner of the net to restore the Kingz advantage once more - 3-2, and how!! Back came Spirit, but the Kingz, defensively, rode their luck, somehow fending off all that their opponents could throw at them, including a last-minute penalty claim which referee Micallef waved away. Such was their willingness to put bodies on the line that it was, in fact, the home side who could have found the target again before the end, Leigh Kenyon's diving header and Stergiopoulos' adventurous run, with the aid of Jones and Batram Suri in the latter case, both going close to extending the Kingz advantage. But 3-2 it remained, a result which greatly boosted the Kingz spirits after their worst-ever mauling just five days beforehand, and a match which was a fine advert for the National Soccer League. Oh for more of this ilk! Kingz:  Utting, Osman, Jones, Vicelich, Perry, Middleby (Hickey, 41), Ngata, Stergiopoulos (booked, 66), Campbell, Rufer (Suri, 79), Lammers (Kenyon, 79) Spirit:  Henderson, Rudan, Crook, Bingley, Cranney, Slater, Cunico (booked, 21), Langdon, Seal, Perinich (Catanzaro, 77), Griffiths (Sobczyk, 58) Referee:  Simon Micallef