Bulli had to come from a goal down to thwart hosts Cringila after the two teams battled it out at Crehan Park on Saturday night. The Lions lost their early advantage as Bulli managed to score two second half goals to seal the points. Desperate for points, the Lions were eager to kickstart their season with a win over struggling Bulli. Alex Mojsoski’s spectacular goal though proved it wasn’t enough as Bulli’s Rui Kumada and Brendan Pattman helped complete the comeback.

The visitors showed their intention early as almost right off the kick off Blake Hewson found some space before skying his shot. The Lions’ first chance came from a curling long range effort by Ibrahim Sesay forcing Yuya Kuwada to pull off a lunging save for a corner.

Ten minutes in and both sides were looking for goals. Bulli’s Kyle Hazebroek rocketing the ball off a corner just over Nikola Ristevski’s crossbar and then almost immediately down the other end, Cringila captain Todd Sparks’ volley narrowly went just wide of the goal.

Having not scored since round three, Cringila’s goal drought was put to rest as Mojsoski dribbled through Bulli’s defence drilling a powerful left foot shot which found its way past Kuwada. It was a timely goal just before half time and it finally gave the home fans something to cheer about.

Just seconds before half time, Bulli Captain, Sam Davies, almost managed to equalize from a spectacular half volley from outside the box which just cleared the top right corner. Cringila saw out the half to lead 1-0 at the break.

With chances limited in the second stanza, Kumada surprised everyone when he was able to pull off a remarkable header in the 61^st minute to level the scores following substitute Trent Sierra’s curling corner. Suddenly, it was all square and the game was on the line again.

Cringila looked to restore their lead when just moments later, a terrific finish saw th goal disallowed for offside much to the despair of the home side.

The longer the game went, the more Bulli looked most likely to score. In the 70^th minute, Bulli nearly had a goal when Ristevski was called upon to make a terrific one handed save deflected off a corner.

With just 12 minutes remaining, Brendan Pattman decided to have a dig from range and it managed to sneak past Ristevski putting Bulli in front for the first time in the match. With Cringila on the ropes, Mitchell Delturco almost managed a third shortly after but his volley just whisked past the wrong side of the post.

Cringila were unable to recover as Bulli recorded an important win for them.

Round 7 sees both teams playing away with Bulli facing an inform Port Kembla whilst Cringila head to Memorial Park to tackle Corrimal who will be looking to get maximum points following their capitulation on Sunday.

Saturday 27^th April 2019 @Crehan Park, Cringila

Cringilla Lions FC- 1 (MOJSOSKI 41’)

Bulli FC- 2 (KUMADA 62’, PATTMAN 78’)

Cringila Lions FC – Nikola RISTEVSKI, Todd SPARKS, Jake WEBSTER, Takao TERAMOTTO, Aiden BRESLIN, Jackson BROOKS, James RALSTON, Alex PRENTOSKI, Alex MOJSOSKI, Ibrahim JESAY, Ryoga UEMOTO- SUBS- Kristofer STEFANOVSKI, Alexander BRBEVSKI, Aleksandar NAJDOSKI, Martin LAVIN, Rory BILLINGTON

Bulli FC- Yuya KUWADA, Kyle JACKSON, Kenji TAKAHASHI, Rui KAMADA, Blake HEWSON, Ryan EMERTON, Sam DAVIES, Kyle HAZEBROEK-SOUTHGATE, Mitch DELTURCO, Brendan PATTMAN, Ben MCDONALD- SUBS- Trent SIERRA, Josh DAY, Sam MIRANDA, Ben MCGINNES, Harrison DENNIS

Referee- Greg REID

Assistant Referees- Ethan Zvargulis, Italo Rincato

Report by Tim DIXON, on Twitter @Tim_Dixon_

Photo courtesy of Noel Wynn