Winless all season, Bulli must have thought Christmas had come early when Russell Vale contrived to gift wrap all 5 goals. No disrespect to Bulli overall they deserved the win but sadly all five of their goals were set up by Russell Vale.

With only eleven players turning up on the day we were a little restricted with our team selection. Once again Brody Armour was between the sticks for the long term injured Ethan Johnson. He couldn’t be faulted for the goals, he tried his best and even managed a couple of good saves. The Cobras were a goal down leading up to HT when Blair Dunn knocked home the equaliser but once again our discipline let us down as Bulli went up the other end and made it 2-1 to the home side at the break. It had been end to end football besides their two goals Bulli had also hit the woodwork twice. Russell Vale’s reply was a corner and a free kick from Harrison Benn that both caused mayhem in the Bulli six yard box but despite a couple of frantic goal mouth scrambles the Cobras just couldn’t get the ball over the line.

When the second half restarted Bulli increased their lead to 3-1 before Blair Dunn drilled home his second of the match to give Russell Vale a chance of getting something from the game. Unfortunately goals 4 and 5 put paid to that slim hope and with no subs to call on the formation was changed to 3-3-4 with 5 mins to go to try and get a goal back but Bulli’s defence held firm.

This season it would appear we are consistently, inconsistent. Even in this game there were some flowing passing moves that led to Tom Curran, Riley Hanlon, Jordan Errington and Hayley Waller all going very close to scoring but alas not close enough. Although there were battling performances from Ethan Larnach and Baxter Bowler Prentice, much to my chagrin there were other times the team just stood and watched Bulli with the ball.

From my perspective the results are irrelevant, it’s all about performance and playing good football. There’s no easy solution to our erratic form this season, the players just have to concentrate and work hard at training. Like the first season when all the other teams were playing hoof ball we have to keep faith with our “pass & move” style of football………………….it’s going to be a long season!

“You’ll Never Walk Alone” (hopefully the players will take heart from the LIVERPOOL anthem)

Coach

Regards,

SHAUN HAMLET