It was all change for the 1995/6 season. Kings retained their spot in the Premier Division through a back door loophole, which saw Edinburgh Racers fold and give up their place. Stan Marple replaced Rick as Coach. Although Paddy, Doug, Dean and Simon Howard remained the rest of the squad changed. Forwards Barcley Pearce, Trevor McCallion and Trevor Bardell signed as did GB international Lee Saunders, who could play either forward or in defence. Netminder Scott O'Connor left to join Nottingham with Gavin Armstrong coming in. Ricky Plant boosted the British contingent.
This was a mixed season for Kings with some good wins, several tied games but also matches where they saw victory snatched away from them, or they let teams get too far ahead and couldn't catch them up. They drew 7 matches and lost 10 league games by two goals or less. Out of the 10 home losses, six were by just a one-goal margin.
At the start of the season they beat the newly formed Manchester Storm, with Paddy netting 5+4 and Barcley 2+4 in the B&H Cup. They also drew 4-4 at Humberside; their best ever result in the Hull Rink.
A win in a Challenge match against Telford showed that even though Kings were still struggling to find their feet in the Premier they were too good for the team from the lower league.
Early in the season Kings raised hopes of a good season to come with an 8-8 draw against Sheffield, fighting back from a 6-1 deficit in the first period to tie the game by the end of the second, after a straight hat-trick by Paddy turned the tide. When Gavin was injured at 35 minutes, Alex Barnes gave a great performance stopping all but 2 of the 18 shots he faced. Kings' seventh unanswered goal put them in the lead and the teams traded goals by 52.37 for a nail-biting finish for the fans, with neither team able to come up with the winner. However, this was followed by a series of losses prompting Stan to make changes to the line-up. In a swap move which saw Rob Dumas join the Kings Trevor McCallion joined Teesside. Also in were Jason Jennings and Josh Boni. Simon Perkins, Lee Pow, Trevor Bardell and Mike Urquhart were all released.
This seemed to work as Kings beat Humberside to take their first league win of the season - a match which they controlled in both attack and defence. They them had back to back draws with a strong Fife Flyers team. In November they lost by the odd goal to the high flying Devils and had good wins against Durham and Newcastle followed by a 3-3 draw with Sheffield. But their season was marked by a lack of consistency and often needless penalties cost them matches.
In December Stan made the decision that the squad needed more strength in defence and reluctantly released Barcley, bringing in Scott Young from Humberside. He made an immediate impact scoring 5+2 as Kings beat Newcastle in early January and had a brilliant 3-3 tie away at Nottingham. Two other players joined the team - young Canadians Phil Valk and netminder Scott Easton, who soon proved to be a top class signing and took over the number one spot. Stan was forced to come out of retirement and iced as defensive cover but said after "I won't do it again". Hmmm!
Kings highest League position was sixth, but their hopes of making the Wembley play-off teetered on a knife edge all season, finally coming to an end after 3 defeats in 5 matches. Gradually they slipped down the table finishing last but one, in the relegation play-off zone. However, in the play offs the gulf between Premier and Division One was exposed as Kings convincingly beat Guildford and Blackburn. They finished top of their play-off group and so would have retained their Premier status. In the end it didn't matter because yet again the rink was to close at the end of the season, and this time stayed shut for two years.
Doug McCarthy finished the League season as top scorer with 34+46 points. He was followed by JJ with 35+34 and Paddy with 31+37.
