The return of former Black Stick James Nation from a leg injury came at an opportune time for Kings United as it grabbed four competition points from its double-header this weekend.
Kings and Albany played on Friday night and, while the late time slot caused a few issues for the teams' fluency, this was the game of the week.
The match had been delayed due to the recently completed under-21s tournament so needed to be caught up.
The game started slowly as both sides attacked conservatively and looked for the counter-punch.
Nation at the back for Kings snuffed out any opportunities Albany conjured.
Neither side could break the deadlock in the first half as the penalty corner units of both attacks failed to execute, and both keepers appeared to be on their games.
The second half started with a bit of a bang as a flurry of attack from each end led to many double turnovers and loose play, but Kings came out on top of the exchange as a pinpoint long ball found Craig Turner in the circle and the striker made no mistake with the reverse shot, slamming it into the side netting.
This stung Albany into life but it fell into a bit of a trap of rushing its attack and, while there was still over 15 minutes to go, it played like time was running out.
Once the game settled back into the normal pattern, the Alligators were able to produce a more constructive attack.
Eventually the ball fell in the path of Silas Dalley and, as with Turner at the other end, the striker did his job.
The game ended in a 1-1 draw although Kings came within a whisker of stealing it as a cross went underneath a diving player's stick in front of an open goal post with less than a second left on the clock.
In the other men's games over the weekend, Uni A beat the Taieri Tuataras 5-2, Albany downed Uni B 3-1 and Kings defeated Southland 3-0.
-By Matthew West
