Bulli too good in pre season cup

BULLI lived up to their pre-season favouritism when they scored a come from behind win against last seasons Premier League, League Champions in the final of the pre season tournament.

In its 45th season this is the first time in a long while that we have had the previous seasons top two teams meet in the CLCKO finale.

What a shame that the weather showed its worst face and took a lot away from what should have been a spectacle.

Nonetheless both teams went hammer and tong for the full 90mins in a sometime bruising encounter.

Both sides worked hard in very trying conditions with the wind, gusty at times, blowing straight down the ground.

The rain came in squalls and made it very uncomfortable for the small crowd on hand, not to mention the players.

Bulli ran into the stiff breeze in the first half and actually got off to the better start and made some good inroads into the Dandaloo defense.

The Dandy withstood the early pressure and began to mount some raids of their own and from one of the early attacks took the lead.

Bulli G/K Alan McLeish came for a hopeful cross into his danger zone and got himself caught in no man's land which allowed Dandaloo's new star striker, Ilija Prenzoski, to nick in and send a looping header into the unguarded Bulli net.

A good start to Dandy and during the next 15 mins they had a couple of good opportunities to add to their lead but were denied by the woodwork.

It took a wayward backpass from Peter Gaffney to help Bulli get back on level terms.

His misdirected pass allowed Michael Clare to nip in and pinch the ball and proceeded to go around the g/k.

Replacement keeper David Zufic brought down Clare in a terrible challenge and Referee Mazeski had no hesitation in awarding a spot kick. The only debate is whether or not the card was going to be yellow or red.

It was yellow and Zufic was given no chance from the resultant penalty taken by McGirr.

The teams went into the break locked at 1 - 1.

In the second half Bulli ran with the wind at their backs and really took the game to Dandaloo.

They continually made huge inroads into the Dandaloo half of the field with their fast counter attacks and the way the half panned out they thoroughly deserved to be the next scorers.

This indeed was the case but it took a gem from Man of the Match, Michael Clare to break the deadlock. Clare took advantage of a weak clearance from the back and from fully 25 metres let fly with a great drive that had no trouble finding the back of the net.

Two minutess later(75') Matthew Bailey made one of his surging runs through the middle at the heart of the Dandaloo defense and coolly slotted home from 12m.

Game over.

Given the conditions, this game was a good, torrid affair with Bulli running out deserving winners on the night.

On pre-season form over the last 4 weeks it is difficult not to see these two teams figuring in the battle for major honours at seasons end.

They both play a terrific brand of football and you know for sure that there is going to be plenty of goalmouth action when they play with the opposing goalkeepers having their work cut out to keep their goal intact.

The season proper kicks off next week and there is only one thing left to say and that is 'bring it on'.

Meanwhile The Association reports a record number of teams have registered – a total of 648 teams in all age groups, coming to over 10,000 players this year. The number of Girls soccer players has been noted with a steep increase.