With quality players such as Alex Tobin, Aurelio Vidmar, Carl Veart, Claudio Pelosi and the ever-dangerous Damian Mori at their disposal, you would expect Adelaide Force to be well in the hunt for a top-three placing in the National Soccer League championship. But this season, for various reasons, what is a very solid quality combination on paper has not been as imposing a force to be reckoned with on the field as one would anticipate. On March 23 at North Harbour Stadium, however, Adelaide showed that they should not be ruled out of the reckoning for a top-six finish by recording a 2-0 victory over the Football Kingz to record just the second victory by a visiting side at the Auckland venue. It was a victory they thoroughly deserved, too, for the Force dominated the Kingz who, collectively, had an off-night in front of a 4,323-strong crowd, many of whom vented much of their disappointment at this circumstance not on the local team's players, but on referee Brian Precious - most unfairly in this writer's view. The incident which drew most of the faithful's ire took place a minute before the break, when the Kingz Dutch striker, John Lammers, was sent off for injudicious use of the elbow when contesting possession in the air following a Force clearance. The striker looked stunned and bewildered as referee Precious awarded him an early bath, the player's protests of innocence falling on deaf ears. But the official couldn't help but hear the torrent of abuse directed towards him moments later, as the teams headed for the dressing rooms at half-time. Many of those responsible for this outpouring of emotion would, one hopes, have felt a little sheepish upon seeing the video evidence of the incident later, which gave the impression that there was a degreee of intent in Lammers' actions. Precious didn't have the advantage of the instant replay available to those in the media booth, but the decision he made, based on what he saw take place in an instant in time, was correct, much like the vast majority of his rulings throughout the match. Another such incident took place in the 25th minute, when Adelaide's goalkeeper, Adrian Cagalj lost his bearings and handled the ball outside the right-hand edge of his penalty area as Aaron Silva pursued possession, Immediately, the crowd bayed for blood, cries of "Off! Off! Off!" thundering down from the stands. But such calls do much to reveal how knowledgeable a crowd is with regard to the Laws of the Game. In no way was this a sending-off offence, as the location where the incident took place was far from conducive to being a goalscoring opportunity! Out came the referee's yellow card, an action met with boos and cries of "Cheat!", supposedly directed at the official, rather than the opponent, given the vehemence of later outbursts. (And these same people wonder why quality referees are in such short supply these days?) Scoring chances certainly weren't in this match, particularly in the first spell. Silva was denied by Capalj's alertness in the third minute, while Levent Osman's timely tackle three minutes later thwarted the prolific Mori from combining with Pelosi, the pair having breached the Kingz offside trap on receipt of Vidmar's clipped through ball. The visitors didn't allow the Kingz to settle early on, but marred their industry by squandering a host of scoring opportunities, mainly from outside the penalty area. The back-from-injury birthday boy Jason Batty was quite content to watch the ball whizz past his goalframe at varying heights and trajectories, but when he was called into action in the 33rd minute, man, did he perform!

Batty pulled off not one, not two, but three stunning saves in a ten-second spell to thwart Pelosi's superbly struck volley, Matthew Kemp's powerful header and Mori's attempt to convert the rebound from this - goalkeeping at its very best! The Kingz created a couple of chances of their own in the later stages of the half, with Silva and Marcus Stergiopoulos chancing their arm from distance to no avail, the latter's effort following the home team's most enterprising move of the match, a flowing seven-pass raid which saw Lammers and the shooter heavily involved. After Lammers' dismissal, the Kingz lacked a cutting edge in attack, and the Angelo Costanzo-led Adelaide defence found themselves under little pressure, and with plenty of time to ping forward any number of probing passes in the hope of springing the Kingz offside trap. The first hint that this tactic would pay off for the visitors came in the 55th minute, when Costanzo clipped a raking ball forward to find Mori, of all people, in full flight, and not a Kingz defender near him. Into the penalty area he strode before cracking a left-foot drive across the face of Batty's goal, and just wide of the far post. Eight minutes later, the dam was breached, Vidmar's probing passm instigating the move which opened the scoring. That, and Bradley Hassell's overlapping run down the right-hand side, which saw him evade the outnumbered Lee Jones' challenge, before lashing the ball past the advancing Batty and inside the far post. Stunned silence met the goal, but the crowd were soon shouting for the Kingz again, as Silva danced past three Force defenders. After both he and Jeff Campbell had had their efforts on goal blocked to safety, Jones fed the ball through for the full-of-running Noah Hickey, whose pace took him clear of the defence. Cagalj battered his piledriver to safety, the incoming Jonathan Perry arriving just too late to make the most of the rebound. Ivan Vicelich had an inspired second half for the ten men, and came agonisingly close to notching his second goal of the season with a powerful 70th minute near post header, following Jones' inswinging corner. The ball crept inches ove the crossbar, landing on the roof of the net, much to the relief of Cagalj and company. They were even more relieved five minutes from time as Wynton Rufer, who had been on the park just seven minutes, snatched at a chance to equalise which he would almost certainly have converted had he been fully attuned to the speed of the game. It was to prove a crucial miss, for with the Kingz pressing for an equaliser, Veart turned defence into attack with another yard-eating pass. Vidmar took off in pursuit, and to many, appeared to be offside. But where was he when the ball was played? The flag stayed down, and Vidmar was off down the left, with Kemp roaring forward from deep to fill the void in the  middle. Vidmar picked out his team-mate with a measured first-time cross, which Kemp did justice to by powering his header past Batty from the edge of the penalty area to wrap up all three points for Adelaide. David Moya's late attempt to grant the Kingz some degree of consolation proved fruitless, and their nine-match unbeaten run at North Harbour Stadium was at an end at the hands of a team who were well worthy of all three points, and who should still be regarded as a Force to be reckoned with. Kingz:  Batty, Jones (booked, 17), Osman (Rufer, 78), Vicelich, Hickey, Stergiopoulos (Moya, 59), Ngata, Perry, Campbell, Silva (Suri, 72), Lammers (sent off, 44) Adelaide:  Cagalj (booked, 25), Hassell, Cartwright (booked, 53), Costanzo, Tobin (booked, 40), Kemp, Sabljak, Veart, Vidmar, Mori, Pelosi Referee:  Brian Precious