Bulli F.C. had an impressive victory over South Coast United in the round 3 fixture at Memorial Park on Friday night.

It took only three minutes for Bulli to showcase their attacking intentions, with striker Julian Minutillo sending a dangerous heading chance just wide of the goals.

Bulli enjoyed the early ascendancy, camping in front of the South Coast United goals for extended periods of the first half, with South Coast at a wits end on how to transport the ball into the opposition half.

In the 9th minute, a long range powerful low strike by Bulli’s Jim Kerr forced South Coast goalkeeper Jason Bleakley to dive full stretch to defect the blow.

In the 11th minute, the South Coast goals were finally breached, with Bulli striker Dylan Lewis charging onto a through ball from the midfield to powerfully strike the ball into the back of the netting to seize the opening goal of the fixture.

South Coast United was struggling to hold the ball for any period of time, with link up passing through the field non-existent, with a reliance on long, clearing balls to make their way out of their own half.

Bulli striker Lewis had only whetted his goalscoring appetite, waiting only an additional ten minutes to extend the Bulli lead.

In the 21st minute, a crisp ball into the box allowed Lewis to wrong foot the South Coast defender and dribble to the left post, superbly chipping the ball into the goals under considerable defensive pressure, for the scoreboard to read Bulli 2-0.

A hat-trick was never on the cards for Lewis unfortunately as he was substituted in the 25th minute.

South Coast United did not appear to be in the ball game at all until the 28th minute, when an pearler of a long range assist from Ricky Bertakis curled across the field to the feet of an unmarked Lee Gilroy who gladly unleashed the ball for South Coast United’s opening goal.

Both times went into halftime with confidence, with Bulli F.C. holding a narrow 2-1 lead.

The opening minutes of the second half was all South Coast United, dominating territory and possession, bucking all previous trends of the match thus far.

Shots were fired from a range of angles, but none were able to soar through the goals and equalise the match.

The fixture began to fizzle until the 64th minute, when Bulli nearly locked down the three points through a beautiful cross from Lewis to Ben McDonald, who angled the ball just wide of the goals.

In the 69th minute, a superb leading ball from South Coast’s Denis Stojic allowed substitute Giovanni Leuzzi to threaten stealing the victory away from Bulli, but the Bulli defence held strong ensuring victory.

South Coast United coach Steve Honey saw plenty of positives in his teams performance.

“To our credit, we played one of the top sides, and apart from a couple of little mistakes we held our own,”Honey said.

“Our keeper [Jason Bleakley] was quite good. Robert Brown was excellent at the back, Ricky Bertakis, our senior player had an excellent game up front. Everyone chipped in.”

 

Bulli F.C - 2 (2 - Lewis 11’21’)

South Coast United - 1 (Gilroy 27’)

 

Friday 4th March, 2016

Memorial Park

 

Referee: Greg Reid

Assistant Referees: Ryan O’Sullivan and Andrew Naylor

 

Bulli F.C: Kuwata, Clements, Best, Horner, Burleigh, Kerr, Davies, Zoomers, Lewis, Emerton, Minutillo (Fish, Baker, Knight, McDonald, Naylor)

 

South Coast United: Bleakley, Gilroy, Cesta-Incani, Brown, Skara, Bertakis, Carrasco, Terzic, Pierro, Lee, Stojic (Hemda, Leuzzi, Solevski, Lazerevski)

 

Report by Daniel McGookin

Photo Archive: Pedro Garcia