KEY POINTS:
Whew! What a week at Auckland City.
They started on a high, dipped a little but battled away and got something out of the trip south before ending in a heap as coach Roger Wilkinson packed his boots and shuffled on.
Named last week as club of the year at the Sport Auckland awards, and with former coach Allan Jones recognised as the top coach in the city, the Kiwitea St-based club had it all going for them.
The tough away trip to English Park did not look overly promising until, with a late rally, they snatched an equaliser - but then blew the chance of taking all three points with yet another missed penalty.
Within a couple of days that drama paled into insignificance.
Rumours that Wilkinson and the club were about to split first surfaced on Tuesday morning. By noon it was no longer hearsay - the end was nigh.
By mid-afternoon a short memo from New Zealand Soccer confirmed the honeymoon was over.
Chairman Ivan Vuksich tagged the timing as "horrible" but as damage control swung into action there was no time to look back.
There is real pressure, not only on the club but the New Zealand Football Championship as a whole, New Zealand Soccer and the Oceania Football Confederation. City will carry high hopes on behalf of all at next month's Club World Cup in Japan. For the good of the game here, they have to perform.
To achieve that, they need a leader but it is not simply a case of shaking the tree and hoping a suitably-qualified coach will fall out.
This is close to a crisis situation and one on which so much hangs. As Vuksich, in confirming the parting of ways, alluded to, being coach at Kiwitea St is no easy task.
The fans are the most passionate, some would say fanatical, in the country. Their demands go way beyond simply winning. And, they feel they have the right to demand an input. That, Wilkinson conceded, does, and will never, make life easy.
In the end it was, Wilkinson admitted, "some senior players" who drove the wedge that split the log.
Vuksich too said it is not easy and that some players can, and have, made life difficult.
It went much deeper than results even if their only wins - apart from the still-disputed 1-0 victory over Waitakere United - were against cellar-dwellers Waikato FC and a much-depleted Hawkes Bay United.
For a team who were a factor in the first two NZFC seasons to find themselves closer to the bottom than the top of the table is unpalatable.
They are in the top four only on goal difference. The top three qualify for the end-of-season play-offs.
The salvage operation begins at Kiwitea St tomorrow afternoon.
A home game with Team Wellington - now up to third - is no easy assignment especially given the all-encompassing pressures the week has brought.
Mick Waitt will have his Wellington team, who have not lost since going down 2-1 to YoungHeart Manawatu in week one, primed and ready to take advantage of the uncertainty at City.
Interest in other games will be just as intense, with Hawkes Bay United at home to Waikato FC at the other end of the table. Waitakere, still looking for some decent form despite holding a handy lead, face a daunting trip to Dunedin while Manawatu entertain Canterbury.
GOLDEN BOOT
6: Benjamin Totori (Manawatu).
3: Grant Young (Auckland), Peter Halstead (Wellington).
2: Keryn Jordan, Bryan Little, Ross McKenzie, Paul Seaman (Auckland), David Batty, Andy Barron (Wellington), Jindrich Hahn (Otago), Commins Menapi, Hoani Edwards (Waitakere), Matt Williams (Waikato), Hayden Laird (Manawatu).
