Newcastle dominated the first half yet struggled at times to put the Kingz out of their misery through a scrambled goal by Joel Griffiths and a soft penalty taken well by Alex Moreira.
Newcastle came into the game aiming to obtain the coveted second spot to Premiers Glory and in their last game at home in front of over 9,000 fans they should have been very confident given the Kingz under powering 1-7 drubbing by Parramatta last weekend.
The New Zealand team travelled west without star player Andy Vlahos and stalwart Mark Atkinson. They drastically needed to lift the Kingz club out of a despondent state.
As early as the 4th min Joel Griffiths was into the danger area but his shot went wide, and was also pulled up for handball. For the Kingz a Ngata header in the 7th min was their best chance of the game but it went wide on the left side of the goal.
In the 14th min a sweet long ball out of defence on the right by Scott Baillie found Esala Masi and with a nice burst of pace and a twist he left his marker for dead and slipped the ball inside for Griffiths whose scrambled attempt saw the ball bounce past a sprawling defender and enter the Kingz goal.
Shortly after Paul Urlovic got forward on the left for the Kingz but his cross was easily cleared.
A 17th min sweet ball down the left sideline by Joey Schirripa to a running Joel Griffiths gave the striker the momentum he needed to slip inside the defenders and slot a weighted ball toward goal. Alas, it just went past the right upright.
In the 19th min, George Goutzioulis hit a free kick that Beltrame had to get down to and take. After that, it was all Newcastle for the first 44 mins - what happened to the other one Matthew? - too one-sided for you too? Middleby hit a speculator over, then Schirripa got lost getting into the area, and Blagojevic hit one over and somewhat later hit one straight at Michael Theoklitos.
Newcastle had dominated but not pushed on with goals and the Kingz came back out looking like nothing had changed. Griffiths hit one well past the upright, and Blagojevic had hit another straight to Theoklitos. Meanwhile John Markovski had hit a weak header wide, but after about the 68th the Kingz revived and Goutzioulis sent Urlovic away only to have his shot blocked by Daniel Beltrame in the Newcastle goal.
The best spell for the Kingz followed with Ngata having a shot deflected, Urlovic running down a loose ball and slamming it against the right upright from an acute angle, and Campbell Banks goal was disallowed for the slightest of contact with the keeper.
Alex Moreira took a 79th min free kick that beat Theoklitos but slammed against the right side of the crossbar. Moreira went down after a similar touch by the keeper Theoklitos on him, and took the soft penalty well to make it 2-0. Ngata went one over from 20m, and then Griffiths beat the keeper only to see his angled tap trickle wide on the left. In the 87th min Moreira hit over from the left and the Kingz were denied a penalty in their favour when Banks was brought down.
Generally a poor match, with Newcastle failing to turn their early dominance into gaols and the Kingz giving them a fright with a late second half revival.
Newcastle was best served by Griffiths, Baillie, Middleby, Schirripa, and Beltrame.
Kingz can thank George Goutzioulis, Harry Ngata, and Campbell Banks for their contributions.