Perhaps the most telling statistic concerning the Football Kingz 2001-2 National Soccer League campaign is that the club boasted as many coaches as victories and clean sheets. And as there were only three wins …      In short, the 2001-2 NSL season was every Kingz supporter's worst nightmare, nothing more, nothing less!!      Yet it all started out with so much promise and expectation. The club recruited no less a soul than the reigning NSL Coach of the Year, Mike Petersen, to guide the fledgling Kiwi outfit into the play-offs for the first time in their history, after their eighth-placed finish in 2000-01.      In turn, the former Socceroo and Ajax Amsterdam player wielded the cheque book, signing up a host of "name" performers, such as Michael Theoklitos, Hiroshi Miyazawa, Vinko Buljubasic, George Goutzioulis, Andy Vlahos, John Markovski and a man noted as much for his car-driving exploits as for those with a football at his feet, Con Boutsianis.      To cut a long story short, Con never fronted in a Kingz shirt, and a deal was struck with his former club, South Melbourne, during the season for him to return to his old stamping ground. His first game for them was against the Kingz … you needn't bother guessing who scored both goals in a 2-1 win for the home team!!      But the Kiwi team's campaign was well and truly on its ill-fated journey by this time. With so many new signings, a period of establishing combinations was to be expected, but, despite a first-up loss at Brisbane Strikers and a scoreless draw with South Melbourne, in front of what turned out to be the biggest home gate of the season at Ericsson Stadium, all appeared to be in order.      Then the wheels came off!! Spectacularly!!!      A 5-3 defeat in a thriller at Marconi Stallions highlighted the achilles heel of Petersen's coaching philosophy. With their attack-minded approach, the Kingz effectively had the walls and roof on their house, but defensively, they'd opted to lay their foundations on the San Andreas fault line …      Perth Glory are arguably the most attack-minded team in the entire National Soccer League competition. In Damian Mori and Bobby Despotovski, they have a front-line combination well capable of scoring goals for fun. At North Harbour Stadium on October 26, 2001, they did just that!      The eventual Premiership champions routed the Kingz 7-2, a result which, to that point in the club's history, was its worst-ever defeat, and one from which they never really recovered, as it sent the Kingz plummeting to the bottom of the thirteen-team competition, a position which they were to occupy for almost the remainder of the campaign.      The game was up for Petersen, and long-time Assistant Coach, Shane Rufer, took the reins for the trips to Wollongong Wolves and Sydney United, against whom the Kingz secured a 2-2 draw and recorded a first win of the season, 2-1, respectively.      The United encounter also marked the last match in

a Kingz shirt of New Zealand soccer legend Wynton Rufer. The club's player-coach during its first two campaigns, he signed on in a playing-only capacity for the 2001-2 season, but opted to hang up his boots soon after the Sydney victory following further changes in circumstances at Kingz FC. Despite the team recording its first win of the season to date under his stewardship, Shane Rufer was overlooked for the vacant coaching position, the club opting for the experience of Kevin Fallon to endeavour to steer them out of the mire. Unfortunately for the new man, he came into a situation where his hands were largely tied. The club had secured a number of their players on long-term contracts, and couldn't afford to release those who, in hindsight, simply weren't as capable as their reputations suggested. By the same token, some of the players found Fallon's previously successful footballing philosophies and work ethics to be somewhat different from those to which they had become accustomed during their careers. The upshot of the situation was, no matter what was tried by coaching staff or players, the die of their campaign was already cast, and the impetus provided by the likes of Fallon acquisitions Chris Jackson, Robbie Hooker, Jeff Campbell and Campbell Banks over the remainder of the season was unable to break the mould. Luck was an absent friend, too. Had the nine odd-goal losses and three draws been nine draws and three odd-goal wins, the Kingz would have been in contention for an eighth-placed finish once more. As it was, their lot was the wooden spoon, some six points adrift of twelfth-placed Adelaide City Force. There were a couple of highlights during Fallon's eighteen-game tenure, a 2-1 win over eventual NSL champions Olympic Sharks and a 1-0 defeat of Marconi being the only victories, while draws with Newcastle United (2-2), Wollongong (0-0) and at Parramatta Power (2-2) were the only other points-scoring matches in the rest of the campaign. Otherwise, the figure in the losses column continued to grow, with the nadir coming in the penultimate home game of the season, as Parramatta pummelled the Kingz 7-1 at Ericsson, after the club's most consistent performer in its history, Harry Ngata, had given the boys in black an eighth minute lead. It surpassed the record reversal at the hands of Perth earlier in the campaign, and came plum in the middle of a seven-match losing streak to end the season - the Kingz scored just one point in their last nine games to conclude the 2001-2 NSL competition in last place. Goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos earned the club's Player of the Season honours, and has gone on to secure a contract with Steve McMahon's Blackpool team in the English League Second Division. Paul Urlovic was the leading goalscorer,  while Harry Ngata, Mark Atkinson and George Goutzioulis all clocked up their 100th NSL appearances during the season.