Revenge was oh so sweet for the Football Kingz at Ericsson Stadium on February 14, as they made amends for an early-season six-goal thrashing from South Melbourne by deservedly eclipsing their rivals 2-0, much to the delight of the small - 892 - but vocal Kingz faithful.
With four members of the visiting line-up having been on the Kingz books in the past, and Southsı captain Vaughan Coveny returning to his homeland to play, there was a bit more edge to this encounter than most others played by the home team this season, and it showed.
The Kingz performance was far and away their best of the season, with Danny Hay and the outstanding John Tambouras immense in defence, Mark Burton and Jeremy Christie getting through a power of work in midfield, Harry Ngata and Noah Hickey - the Kingz very own ³Energizer Man² - eagerly beavering away up front, and Craig Wylie enjoying his best-ever display in a black shirt.
It was all too much for an injury-hit South Melbourne side to handle, the visitors sporting a second-choice rearguard in the absence of their usual defensive suspects. But their lack of imagination and inspiration was a telling factor in this match, the Kingz efforts to hustle the visitors out of their match by applying pressure at every turn paying huge dividends for a side which, had they lost this match, would have been consigned to the wooden spoon for the second time in three seasons.
Such an ignominy is not deserved on this showing alone, and one can only wonder how much further up the table the Kiwi contingent would be had Hay and Hickey been acquired far earlier in the campaign - the professionalism and work ethic the former Central United stalwarts have brought to the club has been a key factor in giving Kingz fans around the country an air of optimism for the future to cling to, as this sorry season in the clubıs history draws to a close.
While the home team enjoyed the better of the early exchanges, particularly in terms of territorial advantage, the first chance fell the way of the visitors, an early ball forward by Levent Osman allowing Coveny to outpace Hay and whip in a cross for Michael Curcija. Tambourası intervention meant the free-scoring youngster didnıt get a sniff of goal, an indication of the way his night was to pan out.
Tambouras was to feature again from the resulting corner, blocking a Nick Tolios drive after the Kingz had failed to clear a corner from one-time Kingz employee Con Boutsianis, who was given no mercy throughout the duration of the match by the local supporters, their lack of appreciation of the midfielderıs failure to play for the Kingz during his time at the club made clear in no uncertain terms via words both written and chanted, some of the latter being unprintable!!
The Kingz launched a counter-attack of their own following this corner, Christie leading the charge down the right. His cross to Ngata was laid back by the target man into the path of Mauro Donoso, whose sizzling twenty-five yarder whistled over Michael Theoklitosı crossbar.
Another Kingz attack in the nineteenth minute brought far greater return for the home team - the opening goal of the game. Burton and Ngata linked on the left, the latter switching play with an elegantly weighted pass to Jeff Campbell. The winger appeared to lose his way when confronted by the shaven-headed Sam Poutakidis, but recovered possession and angled in a cross which caught Southıs defence flat-footed.
Ngata, who had moved forward after releasing his pass, gleefully ghosted in to find himself one-on-one with Theoklitos, the ıkeeper charging off his line in an effort to frustrate his former team-mate. Ngata, however, unselfishly laid the ball square, gifting Hickey a goal from six yards.
The onus was now on Souths to quit sparring and take the gloves off, as their drop-off in form of recent weeks has allowed Adelaide United to edge ahead of them in the race for third place. But try as they might, the visitors could make no head-way - the Kingz prevented them from doing so with a performance rich in commitment and a willingness to work for each other.
On a display like this, itıs hard to see Kingz captain Chris Jackson - sitting out the second game of his two-match suspension after collecting his twenty-fifth booking for the club - getting his place back in the starting line-up.
He may have to be content with making his one hundredth appearance for the Kingz as a substitute, because unless thereıs an injury-enforced alteration, for coach Tommy Mason to change this team on the back of such a determined display would be extremely harsh on the individual omitted.
Souths began to make a little head-way late in the half, with the rarely called upon Michael Utting forced to smother a Boutsianis effort, then look on as a Kristian Sarkies volley narrowly cleared his crossbar, after Curcija and Coveny had teamed up four minutes before the break.
Hayıs anticipation of a quick Boutsianis free-kick thwarted Michael Panopoulos in the dying moments of the first spell, the last act of which saw the talismanic central defender releasing Hickey down the left at pace. A pass back to Wylie resulted in an inviting cross which Burton, making a strong break from midfield, only just failed to get his head to.
The second spell began with a dose of controversy - while the collision of Carl Recchia and Hickey was accidental, as both ran across each otherıs paths in pursuit of a Kingz clearance, the defender was the last man between Hickey and the goal
Referee Peter OıLeary, in what, by his standards, was an indifferent display, made the correct decision on this occasion - to have red-carded, or even cautioned, Recchia would have been extremely harsh on the youngster in the circumstances. A free-kick was ample punishment.
The Kingz failed to capitalise on it, but they were the next to threaten, despite Souths having upped the tempo in the interim. Ironically, it was the jet-heeled Hickey who turned defence into attack, a riveting run from inside his own half taking him clear of two opponents, Panopoulos doing his level best to keep pace with the speedster, whose cross from inside the penalty area arced a yard too far ahead of the incoming Ngata, as he loomed up in support.
Panopoulos - with Marcus Stergiopoulos, the pick of a generally feeble performance by the visitors - was back in action at the other end soon after, scooping a shot at Utting, who had a very quiet evening, such was the dominance Hay and, particularly, Tambouras held over Coveny and Curcija.
On this twin-peaked defensive rock, and being in front at the interval for the first time in ages, the Kingz began to ooze confidence, which soared sky-high just shy of the hour mark. It was evident in the deft back-heel of Ngata, which invited Wylie to carry on his run after laying the ball off to the man tagged ³The King of the Kingz² and whip in an inviting cross out of Theoklitosı reach. But for the intervention of Poutakidis, Hickey would have doubled the Kingz advantage.
They had but seconds to wait to do so, however, as Ngata met Wylieıs corner at the near post, and his glancing header made it 2-0 to the Kingz, a scoreline which left them on course to record their first clean sheet in some fifty-three weeks!!
In all honesty, Souths never looked like pulling one goal back in the remainder of the match, never mind two. The only time Coveny got clear of his markers was ten minutes from time, when South Melbourne legend Paul Trimboli provided him with the sort of pass the All White striker thrives on, but which had been denied him by the work of Burton and Christie in the Kingz midfield.
Utting wasnıt having a bar of his international team-mate scoring past him, however, even though he took three attempts to control Covenyıs crisply-struck grasscutter,
This incident apart, the action was largely focused on the other end of the park, where the Kingz came close to notching a third goal. Theoklitos smothered from Tallan Martin, and looked on as both Christie and Wylie sent efforts flying over the crossbar - the former, in particular, should have applied a more clinical, calculated finish to reward the work of Ngata and Hickey on the right.
Seconds beforehand, Wylie produced some mesmerising wing-play to completely outfox two opponents in the penalty area en route to the byline. Martin touched his team-mateıs cross past Theoklitos, but the ball fizzed agonisingly across the face of goal - Wylieıs skill deserved better fate.
As it was, it had its ultimate reward at the sound of the final whistle - three well-earned points for the bottom-of-the-table team, rich reward for an all-too-rarely-seen confident display by the Kingz, one which went some way to balancing the books against opponents who, in recent seasons, have looked upon their trip across the Tasman as a chance to significantly boost their goal difference.
Not this time.