South Coast United sealed their place in the semi-finals with a hard-fought 1-1 draw against League Leaders Bulli at Balls Paddock on Saturday.

An own goal midway through the first half cancelled out Dean Heffernan’s opener as the two sides were unable to break down some solid defensive work on the day.

The result gives South Coast the opportunity to show their worth in the finals and positive results against their finals opponents earlier in the season has boss Alan Paine feeling confident.

“I’m very happy because of the effort we put in was phenomenal,” said Paine.

“The boys were disciplined and we had a tactic that they stuck to so I’m enormously happy.

“We’ve got good results against the teams above this season us so we’re not that scared of the good teams.

“It’s a relief that we’re finally into the finals now and we can sort of start to relax and start to think about that.

More positives for South Coast was the form of young winger Jack Lombo who put in a good display on the left.

The 16-year-old picked a good day to turn it on with South Coast Wolves staff watching along on the sidelines as his side forced a draw.

Bulli were on the board early when Dean Heffernan nodded home at the back post after Corey Horner flicked the ball on from the near post from a well-directed corner for a 1-0 lead in just the sixth minute of play.

Heffernan had a great chance to double the lead on the 20 minute mark after Ben McDonald made a great run down the left and set up Bulli’s star recruit with a perfect pass but inexplicably he didn’t hold his composure and skedded his shot wide of the mark.

The miss was punished six minutes later, when South Coast fullback Lachlan O’Conner made a surging run into the box and drove the ball across the face of goal; the cross took a wicked deflection off Bulli defender Stuart Lowrie and into the net to draw the sides level.

Just before the half time whistle Bulli’s Ben McDonald thought he’d headed his side back in front with a goal but was ruled to have been offside.

Bulli continued to pepper the South Coast goal to no avail in the second half when first Heffernan forced a good save from Jason Bleakley before McDonald had a header cleared off the line.

“We played good football in patches and let ourselves down in patches but it was always going to be a tough game in some pretty heavy conditions,” said Bulli boss Ben Smith.

“The boys tried their hardest but South Coast were hard to break down so their game plan worked well.

“We had a couple of good chances to score more but to be fair there wasn’t a lot of great chances in the game.

“We just have to pick ourselves up for next week.”

Bulli have all but wrapped up this season’s League Championship with a three point advantage and vastly superior goal difference over the Dapto Dandaloo Fury in second.

A single point next week against Albion Park White Eagles will seal the long awaited title for the northern suburbs club.

 

1-1	Bulli FC	South Coast United
Goals:	D. Heffernan (6’)	S. Lowrie (OG) (26’)

 Referee: Steve Bozic

 

Julian Keith 

FSC Reporter