LOL! No problem.
First off, are the php files stored on your web site? Because otherwise you cannot change them in any way.
Are we talking forum software here or what exactly? How did the php site get created?
Anyway, if you have access to those files and they are on your pc (download them all if not), perform a search in Windows explorer on the folder where you have them and look for anything that contains <body> or </body>. If you're lucky this will be contained in 1 or 2 files.
I prefer to place my counter right before </body> so I'll give you an example done like this.
Say you've found the </body> text in file abc.php. Open abc.php using Notepad, find the </body> . If it's in an html portion (as php files can in fact be html files with some php scripting), then just add normal html code for your counter, save and you're in business.
If you find the </body> in a php construct like:
echo '</body>';
or maybe
echo ('</body>');
or perhaps it is even written as:
print '</body>';
They are all the same.
Then add just before that line:
// **** added customization for Statcounter code ****
echo '<center>';
echo '<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">';
echo 'var sc_project=999999;';
echo 'var sc_partition=1;';
echo 'var sc_invisible=0;';
echo '</script>';
echo '<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://www.statcounter.com/counter/counter.js"></script>';
echo '<noscript>http://c2.statcounter.com/counter.php?sc_project=999999&java=0 (http://www.statcounter.com) </noscript>';
echo '</center>';
// **** end customization for Statcounter
Notice how in fact the code generated by Install Counter is present but each line is preceded by echo ' and followed by '; . This is how you instruct php to output html code.
Very important: Since I used .. instead of ... here so that I can add colors to the code, make sure you do not actually split the line:
echo '<noscript>http://c2.statcounter.com/counter.php?sc_project=999999&java=0 (http://www.statcounter.com) </noscript>';
on 2 or more lines as it appeared above. This means have it all as one continuous line from echo with just single blanks separating the words, until the ;
What I have in blue you will have to adapt to your own project number, of course.
What I have in green is my way of centering the code, but you can use <p align="center"> ... </p> or other methods.
I hope this helps.