Corrimal Rangers came within seconds of securing their first three points of the season in a hotly contested match against Bulli at Balls Paddock on Wednesday night. Van Elia put the Rangers ahead midway through the first half in the round one catch up match before Kyle Hazebroek netted from distance deep into added on time.

Bulli had a superb opportunity to open the scoring in the 25th minute when Ben McDonald got on the end of a long ball before evading a challenge and cutting the ball to Brendan Pattman. The former Woonona forward tried to find the bottom left corner but Nic Loe pulled off a crucial save before the ball was cleared.

The squandered chance proved costly as the visitors scored shortly after through Elia. Ben Zucco picked the ball up on the edge of the area before lifting a pass over the defence for Lukas Stergiou who was brought down only for the ball to fall to the New Zealander who blasted it into the top of the net.

With five minutes remaining in the opening half, a defensive collision allowed Pattman a brilliant chance for redemption as he scooted through on goal but his one on one effort came off the base of the left upright leaving Bulli goalless at the interval.

Corrimal would have doubled their advantage 10 minutes into the second half had it not been for Yuya Kuwada. Matt Galanti crossed the ball into the box for Tomoki Wada to bring down and lay off to Elia whose driven finish was expertly saved by the Japanese gloveman.

Soon after Elia nearly caught out Kuwada with a low free kick which squirmed through the wall. The goalkeeper spilt the ball towards his own goal but managed to latch on to it before it went over the line.

The match, which was heated from the early stages, reached boiling point in the final 15 minutes with both sides being reduced to 10 men. Bulli’s Ryan Emerton picked up his second booking for a careless challenge on Ben Zucco who himself got a second yellow a couple of minutes later for kicking the ball away.

Corrimal seemed to have the three points sealed but in the sixth minute of added on time, Bulli countered and substitute Hazebroek let fly from 30 metres out. The speculative attempt bamboozled Loe who was unable to palm the ball over the crossbar with the goal causing pandemonium around Balls Paddock.

The result moves Bulli into fourth on four points ahead of this weekend’s home tie against South Coast United. Bulli coach Matt Bailey admitted it wasn’t a vintage performance from his team and put the fiery nature of the match down to the competitiveness of the two sides.

“I wasn’t overly pleased with our first half but I thought in the second half we definitely wrestled the game back and created a few chances and caused a few problems,” Bailey said.

“Both sides are trying to win things this year and when that happens it creates a really intense contest and that’s what’s happened tonight."

As for Corrimal, the draw secures their first point of 2019. They face Wollongong United on Sunday at Memorial Park.

Wednesday 3 April 2019 @ Bulls Paddock, Woonona

Bulli - 1 (HAZEBROEK 90+6’)

Corrimal Rangers - 1 (ELIA 28’)

Bulli - Yuya KUWATA, Kenji TAKAHASHI, Kyle JACKSON, Ryan EMERTON, Rui KUMADA, Sam DAVIES, Aaron BAKER, Mitchell DEL TURCO, Brendan PATTMAN, Blake HEWSON, Ben MCDONALD

Substitute - Kyle HAZEBROEK (on for MCDONALD), Mitchell TURNER (on for HEWSON), Edward ENGLISH, Ben MCGINNES

Corrimal Rangers - Nic LOE, Dean PENDER, JASON ZUFIC, Banri KANAIZUMI, Matt GALANTI, Lukas STERGIOU, Ben ZUCCO, Tomoki WADA, Sam MATTHEWS, Van ELIA, Tim WYLIE

Substitute - Daniel CARRENO (on for ELIA), Paul GUIDO (on for STERGIOU), Franco KUSHABA (on for WYLIE)

Referee - Nick RYAN

Assistant Referee - Josh SPAIN, Andrew MUIRHEAD

Report by Dylan Arvela, on Twitter @dylanarvela

Photo by Dana Guthrie