Soccer: Own goals kick-start Stevens' career

The Kingz' 'Timmy-come-lately' is proving also to be a supersub with a nose for goals. TERRY MADDAFORD reports on the service station owner whose football is really pumping.


Scoring two goals at the wrong end of the field may well have been the turning point in Tim Stevens' soccer career.

But he never dared to imagine it would lead to the early season goal-grabbing glory he is enjoying with the Football Kingz.

The "Timmy come lately" at the Auckland-based club has shot to the top of the Australian National Soccer League goalscoring list with four from just three games.

But football remains a part-time job as he juggles onfield commitments with his new business venture - pumping gas at his South Auckland service station.

Stevens is determined to make the most of both opportunities.

Australian-born but living in New Zealand for the last 20 of his 27 years, and playing his football at Rangitoto College and the East Coast Bays, North Shore United and Waitakere City clubs, Stevens had a brief flirt with international football, including half-a-dozen full internationals.

It was during the years at Bays that his defensive days ended.

"I was playing sweeper, but scored two own goals. The coach pushed me up front to see if I was as good at scoring at the right end.

"I've played striker ever since," he said.

"Straight after the 1997 World Cup qualifier in Sydney I headed to England and had trials with and played reserve-team football at Reading.

"While I was playing for the reserves I had an offer from Stevenage Borough and played for them in the Vauxhall Conference League."

Stevens also had time at Gillingham and Bournemouth, but when he found he and his girlfriend were down to their last £20, he decided to fall back on his accountancy skills to earn enough money to trip around Europe.

"It was time to do something else. I had 18 months away from football.

"I came back but was overlooked by the Kingz for their first season and played instead in the national club championship for Waitakere," Stevens said.

"I had no inkling that the Kingz were interested this time until [co-coaches] Shane and Wynton Rufer approached me.

"They asked me to go to Whangarei and then Wanganui for pre-season games. I scored two against Marconi, but only had half-games in the three pre-season matches I played."

That part-time effort has continued, with Stevens' only full game in six the away loss to Sydney Olympic in the NSL opener.

In the two abbreviated appearances since, he scored two against Eastern Pride and a couple against Newcastle United - before being hauled to the substitutes' bench.

"That was no big deal. I am not fully fit and it was the opportunity to give other players a run.

"If I can score two goals a game, I'd be happy with just five minutes," he said.

With the commitment to his new service station - he has a franchise with Gull Petroleum in Manukau City - Stevens was happy to take a performance-based contract with the Kingz.

"I don't have the time to train fulltime, but I'm happy with what I'm doing."

So are his team-mates, the Rufer brothers and the Kingz' fans.