Bulli moved to outright leaders of the Illawarra Premier League with a snatch and grab a 2-1 victory over rivals Wollongong Olympic at the PCYC. The win came late on for Matt Bailey’s side with the decisive goal coming from the penalty spot in the 90th minute.

The visitors got off to a cracking start, finding the back of the net inside the opening two minutes. Tobin Zoomers lined up a freekick just outside the box and his effort deflected off the wall and tumbled into the bottom left corner leaving Hayden Durose in the Olympic goal stranded.

Undeterred, Olympic fought back and had multiple chances to level the score over the next 30 minutes of player. In the 15th minute, David Hartas found Brendan Fordham in the box and his header produced a desperate scrambling save from Yuya Kuwata.

From the 32nd minute, Olympic had three attempts on goal inside two minutes of play. First of all, Fordham's header was tipped onto the crossbar, from the resulting corner, Vaughan Patterson’s header trailed wide and then Kojiro Hori worked a pocket of space on the edge of the area but his drive found the arms of Kuwata.

Despite dominating the territorial battle for effectively the entire half, Olympic couldn’t find the back of the net and went into the sheds down by a goal to nil.

In the first minute of the second half, the home side came close through star striker Yusuke Ueda. Last season’s top scorer barged his way into the box and his thumping near-post strike was parried wide for a corner.

With an hour gone, Olympic had another opportunity this time from a freekick in a similar position to where Zoomers had taken his in the first half. Japanese full-back Shun Tokuno stepped up and his wicked strike was flicked over by countryman Kuwata.

In the 74th minute, the home side finally opened their account for the afternoon. A cross was flung in from the left and a determined Ueda outside the far post was able to knock the ball back toward the centre for Patterson to head home from close range.

With five minutes remaining, Bulli managed an excellent chance to get back in front. Hayato Takahashi played fellow substitute Harry Callahan through on goal but the youngster's shot was smothered by the onrush Durose.

As the clock ticked into added on time, Bulli were awarded a penalty after Jake Duczynski fouled Marcus Beattie. After a relatively quiet afternoon, Dylan Lewis assumed responsibility for the spot kick and he made no mistake in converting despite Durose getting a mitt on the ball.

Olympic clambered players forward but they were unable to work another opportunity in the final minutes of added on time meaning Bulli would leave the PCYC with all three points.

The victory caps off a massive week for Bulli with a win over local rivals Woonona last weekend as well as progressing to the FFA Cup fifth round thanks to a hard-fought 3-1 win over Coniston on Wednesday night. In Round 5, Bulli will host the Fernhill Foxes.

As for Wollongong Olympic, they remain in second place unless Albion Park White Eagles beat Corrimal on Sunday. Olympic have another huge match next weekend where they travel to Macedonia Park to take on title rivals Wollongong United.

 

Saturday 10 April @ Wollongong PCYC

 

Wollongong Olympic - 1 (PATTERSON 74’)

 

Bulli - 2 (ZOOMERS 2’, LEWIS 90’ pen)

 

Wollongong Olympic - Hayden DUROSE, David HARTAS, Jake DUCZYNSKI, Haydyn LLOYD, Shun TOKUNO, Vaughan PATTERSON, Brendan FORDHAM, Luke FOSTER, Kojiro HORI, Yusuke UEDA, Jack BALMFORTH

 

Subs - Lukas STERGIOU (on for FORDHAM), John MARTINOSKI (on for BALMFORTH), Ekoue D’ALMEIDA (on for HARTAS), Christian PRETTO

 

Coach - George ANTONIOU

 

Bulli - Yuya KUWATA, Scott BEST, Kyle JACKSON, Kenji TAKAHASHI, Tobin ZOOMERS, Sam DAVIES, Guy KNIGHT, Dylan LEWIS, Ben MCDONALD, Marcus BEATTIE, Mitchell DEL TURCO

 

Subs - Harry CALLAHAN (on for MCDONALD), Ryan EMERTON (on for DAVIES), Hayato TAKAHASHI (on for DEL TURCO), Jayden LEWIS

 

Coach - Matt BAILEY

 

Referee - Bobby MAZEVSKI

 

Assistant Referees - John RUSCICA and William WHITEHOUSE

 

Report and photo by Dylan Arvela, on Twitter @dylanarvela