Bulli continued their pursuit of the League Title with a comprehensive five goals to nil victory over Picton Rangers, who are fighting for a finals berth, at Balls Paddock on Saturday.

The opening quarter of an hour lacked any real intensity with both sides content on feeling each other out. Play was generally limited to the area between the two penalty areas with movement inside the attacking zones on a sporadic basis.

The first real attempt on goal came 14 minutes in when Bulli Right Full Back, Aaron Baker, made a great run down the right side whereupon he cut a neat pass back from the by-line to Ryan Emerton lurking on the edge of the penalty area and the mid-fielder's first time shot skimmed the crossbar.
Two minutes later, at the other end, Picton's Andrew Borg was the end link in a productive chain movement by the visitors but his cross-field run along the edge of the Bulli penalty area ended with a lame shot which was comfortably saved by Bulli Keeper, Yuya Kumata.

The visitors had been working hard to close opposition players down in an effort to restrict the Home Side's ball movement and were getting good numbers behind the ball and defending stoutly up until the half hour mark when their resistance was finally broken.

Bulli had received a free kick roughly ten metres in from the right touch line in line with the Picton penalty area. Baker's cross into the danger zone was met perfectly by leading marksman, Ben McDonald 11 metres from goal and the lanky striker's powerful header left Picton Keeper, Bradley Jones, stranded has the ball nestled in the bottom corner.

Ten minutes later, Bulli doubled their lead with a very well taken goal from Julian Minutillo. Emerton had picked the ball up in central midfield and advanced unattended towards the target area and released a terrific pass to Minutillo in a wide left position just outside the penalty area. The left winger still had a bit of worked to do but showed some great composure & deft footwork to hoodwink two defenders before finishing neatly with a low drive.

The Home Side went to the dressing rooms at half time, two goals to the good and it was evident then that the first goal scorer after the break would be vital either way.

It didn't take long to find out as within 60 seconds of the re-start the game was as good as over when Bulli's Dylan Lewis finished off a fine passing movement between James Kerr, Emerton and Lewis, who featured twice in the exchange before striking home from close range.

At this point, the enthusiasm and any intensity which are normally strong points from Picton's side was drained with the Rangers on the back foot for the remainder of the game.

Diminutive mid-fielder, Kerr capped off a strong performance with a fine individual goal on 54 minutes. Picking the ball up 5 or 6 metres outside the Picton penalty area and 20 metres from the touch line, Kerr commenced a slalom run which took him past two defenders and into open space. Faced with the advancing Keeper, the 'little fella' held his nerve to finish with aplomb as he thundered his shot into the back of the net.

There was now an avalanche of Bulli attacking raids with numerous attempts on target most notably from the four goal scorers plus Matthew Naylor having shots saved or blocked by defenders on the goal line in some desperate defending.

With quarter of an hour to play, the defensive lines were cracked one final time when McDonald grabbed his second for the match. Another of Bulli's midfield trio, Sam Davies, got in on the act when he did well on the edge of the penalty area with a penetrating run before offloading to McDonald just inside the box whose shot on the turn went low and hard into the bottom corner.

After somewhat of a slow start to the game by the home side, this turned out to be a good team effort by Bulli as they kept up the pressure on Kemblawarra Fury at the top of the table.

Picton on the other hand were certainly below par and did not play up to their normal standards where you expect the Rangers to make the opposition worked hard for any points.

Bulli Coach, Ben Smith was happy with what he called a polished performance by his team. He expected a tough game from Picton and felt that the third goal was going to be important.
Smith felt his side played some good stuff at times but pointed out that the number of unforced errors especially, turning possession over cheaply was a bit of a concern. Overall, pretty good especially when you consider the slippery conditions.

Picton Mentor, Brett Morley was obviously disappointed with the outcome and simply said his team was 'off song' whilst the opposition was 'on song'. Morley was full of praise for Bulli especially in their player & ball movement and the execution was of a high standard.

'Ruthless' was the one word that he used to sum up the opposition.

 

Match Stats

 

Bulli 5 (Ben McDonald 29' 74', Julian Minutillo 40', Dylan Lewis 46', James Kerr 54')
Picton Rangers 0

 

Balls Paddock, Woonona

 

Referee: Peter Ilcevski

Assistant Referees: Caleb Blanch & Dean Morriera

 

Bulli: Yuya Kuwata, Aaron Baker (Matthew Naylor 60'), Kensi Takahashi, Scott Best, Guy Knight, James Kerr, Sam Davies, Ryan Emerton, Ben McDonald, Dylan Lewis, Julian Minutillo (Lewis Clements 60').

Subs not Used: Daniel Carreno, Kyle Jackson, Joao Oliveira.

Yellow Cards: Nil

 

Picton Rangers: Bradley Jones, Ben Realph(Jesse Howard 62'), Dale Nicol, Daniel Goodhew, Bradley Durrant, Nicholas Mugridge, Mitchell Hall (Matthew Tesoriero 62'), Aiden Matthews, Jarred Morley (William McLeod 78'), Connor Dymond, Andrew Borg.

Subs not Used: Nil

Yellow Cards: Nicholas Mugridge 55'.

 

Report by David Naylor

Photos: Pedro Garcia