Soccer: Flimsy defence in Kingz' third straight defeat

By TERRY MADDAFORD and NZPA

Another experiment that went wrong has left the Football Kingz with a record they do not want to even think about.

The Kingz slumped to their third successive loss when they went down away to Perth Glory on Saturday night - the first time in two seasons of the National Soccer League that they have suffered that embarrassment.

The final result, 1-5, was one of the heaviest defeats the Kingz have suffered.

And on top of that, the game was marred by an ugly brawl.

"We were outplayed by the best team in Oceania. Simple as that," said the Kingz' assistant coach, Shane Rufer, after the West Australian side had exposed the woeful Kingz' defence.

"We have problems at the back and we must address them."

A week earlier, the Kingz had gambled and lost in going with a three-pronged attack against Adelaide City.

Against Perth, the coaching staff opted for a four-man defensive unit. Again, with the same result.

In the continual revolving-door policy now so much part of the Kingz' selection philosophy, captain Harry Ngata was dropped to make way for Ivan Vicelich's switch back to the midfield after playing in the defence a week earlier.

Jeff Campbell took Lee Jones' midfield spot, Australians Levent Osman and Michael Cartwright joined Che Bunce and Riki Van Steeden in the new-look defence, and Paul Urlovic and Dennis Ibrahim were left to make up a two-man attack.

Only midfielders Vicelich, Mark Burton and Arran Lines, it seems, came out with a pass mark.

Brad Maloney scored after just three minutes to give the home side an early impetus.

The Kingz held their own for the next 20 or so minutes until Damian Mori let loose and grabbed his first hat-trick for his new club after switching from Adelaide. Those three goals in a 10-minute burst killed off the visitors.

Urlovic got one back just before the break when he was brought down, but got up and slotted the resultant penalty.

He raced into the goal net to pick up the ball to restart play quickly back at halfway. However, Glory goalkeeper Jason Petkovic refused to release the ball and what started as a push-and-shove incident between the pair escalated as others charged in.

Punches and kicks were thrown by players from both sides and it took several minutes for referee Jeremey Blaney, his assistants and match inspector Ahmed Ismail to restore order.

Urlovic was given a yellow card, but no other player was censured by Blaney.

Soccer Australia said it would look closely at video footage of the brawl.

Maloney scored the only goal of the second spell as Perth continued their climb back up the points table.

"Obviously we are very disappointed with the result," Rufer said.

"We will have a day off when we get back on Monday, but we will be back into it on Tuesday, preparing for Friday night's game with Carlton.

"Off and on the field, Perth Glory are an example for every club in Oceania. We had the longest trip in world club football to get here, but that is not an excuse.

"We have problems and we have to look at all the options."

Adelaide made it two in a row by the odd goal with their 3-2 home win over Northern Spirit, while lowly Newcastle gave their season a boost with a 3-1 home win over Canberra.