Soccer: Just one of those nights as Ngata grabs four

Four-goal hero Harry Ngata described it as "just one of those nights" as he helped the Football Kingz to an upset 4-1 victory over Northern Spirit in the National Soccer League last night.

The win, the Auckland-based club's first at North Sydney Oval, followed their encouraging 0-0 home draw against Sydney United in the opening round last weekend.

"This was a good test for us, because we've never won here," Ngata said.

"We had some critics last week saying our finishing was off. I hope they'll take note."

The Kingz had failed to take a point off the Spirit in three previous visits, but they made amends as Ngata grabbed his first NSL hat-trick and then added a fourth goal for good measure.

"It's not a big deal for me -- as long as the team wins," he said.

"If I score one or two, I'm more than happy. I don't think I'll score four again, but in saying that, who knows?"

Before last night, the 31-year-old All White had 15 goals to his name from 103 NSL appearances.

He took full advantage of slack Spirit marking to finish off chances laid on by Mark Atkinson in the third minute and by Andy Vlahos in the 17th.

Late in the match, when the Kingz were awarded a spot kick, there was a brief consultation with designated penalty taker Vlahos before Ngata stepped to complete his hat-trick.

"Me and Andy had a chuckle," Ngata said.

"He asked, 'Do you want it?' I said, 'Yeah, if you don't mind'."

Ngata's fourth goal two minutes from time was his best, sweetly struck on the edge of the box after a run from midfield.

Down 4-0, Northern Spirit grabbed a consolation in the dying moments with Vuko Tomasevic scoring from the spot.

The Spirit played most of the second half with 10 men, after striker Adam Kwasnik was sent off in the 50th minute for pushing Kingz substitute Johnny Foundoulakis in the face.

Foundoulakis had come on after 30 minutes for Raffaele DeGregorio, who suffered a suspected broken nose in a challenge by veteran defender Alex Tobin.

Despite the emphatic scoreline, Ngata felt the Kingz didn't play as well as they did at Ericsson Stadium last Sunday.

They didn't pressure the Spirit's midfield general, Scottish import Ian Ferguson, enough early on, allowing him time to show some nice touches.

"Performance-wise, it was better last week," he said.

"In the first half, we sat off a lot. We let Ferguson have a lot of the play and dictate things, and we addressed that at half-time."

A draw and an away win represent a fine start for the Kingz, after their disappointing last-place finish last season.

They will get a further indicator next weekend of how they are travelling when they entertain Perth Glory, the losing grand finalists of the past two years.

Coach Ken Dugdale also rated the display against Sydney United as the better of the two so far from his players.

"I didn't think we played as aesthetically well as last week," he said, "but we obviously finished well."

- NZPA