By TERRY MADDAFORD
Sparked by a Dennis Ibrahim hat-trick in the first half, the Football Kingz held on to beat the Brisbane Strikers 3-2 in their National Soccer League clash last night.
It was the second time in six days that a Brisbane side had come unstuck at Ericsson Stadium, following
the Warriors' one-point rugby league win last Saturday.
The Kingz continued their trend of recent weeks in dominating the early stages, but again lacked firepower in front of goal.
A defensive lapse by the home team in the 23rd minute proved costly when they failed to deal with a ball played into the goal area by Peter Grierson.
Fernando Rech pounced and took advantage of the first real chance of the match to score.
Half-chances to Jonathan Perry and Wynton Rufer for the Kingz and visiting captain Stuart McLaren came to nothing.
Then, in a 15-minute burst from the 28th minute, the Kingz scored three.
The first came when Rufer controlled the ball superbly and touched it to Ibrahim, who provided the finishing touch.
Eleven minutes later, a Perry free kick which bounced over an attempted Brisbane clearance sat up nicely for Ibrahim.
His third came from a rare penalty awarded to the Kingz when goalkeeper Corey Baldock clipped Perry's knee with his hand.
Two players, including Baldock, were booked by Derek Rugg for their protests, but that did not stop Ibrahim sinking the spot kick to complete only the second Kingz hat-trick in two seasons.
Rugg handed out five yellow cards to the visitors.
But he frustrated the Kingz by wearing a uniform so similar to their playing strip that he could have been mistaken as one of their players.
Brisbane notched the only goal of the second spell when the home defence failed to clear the ball and watched as Jeremy Harris scored in the 51st minute.
For the Kingz, man-of-the-match Ibrahim excelled, Mark Burton was again all class and Julio Cuello had a solid game in goal.
The win took the Kingz temporarily into ninth place.
