Unheralded Glory striker Scott Bulloch is hoping his goal in Perth’s 2-0 win over Sydney is the turning point in a frustrating season that’s been blighted by injury so far.
Playing in his second A-League season after a solid first campaign, Bulloch was cut down by an Achilles injury that’s restricted him to just four games, with Sunday’s win over the Sky Blues being his first appearance in the run-on side.
Bulloch appeared out on his feet just after half-time as he slowly builds his match fitness. But the 25-year-old former police officer summoned one last effort in the 57th minute as he ghosted into the box to meet a stunning Jamie Coyne cross with a glancing header that gave the Glory a lead they didn’t relinquish.
“I obviously thought about taking the shirt off and all that type of thing,” Bulloch said. “I had about 65 different celebrations all in my mind.”
“But (there’s) just no words to describe it, just really happy.”
“It’s been a really long three months. With the Premier League teams, I played well while they were here and then after that, for three months I have just been struggling and trying to come back a little bit too early.”
“But you know, Mitch (coach Dave Mitchell) told me to work hard in the youth team and you’ll get your chance and it all came together today and lucky for me I worked hard and it was nice to get a goal so, yeah it worked well.”
The Glory taking the lead appeared a dim possibility during an underwhelming first half, where Mitchell’s charges struggled to gel after a number of forced positional changes caused by Wayne Srhoj’s suspension and an illness to Mile Sterjovksi, who was played off the bench.
Aware his side might struggle for fluency early on, Mitchell asked his men to produce a big defensive effort, a call they responded to as Sydney was mainly restricted to long-range shots at goal, despite Alex Brosque looking threatening.
But the half-time introduction of Sterjovski changed the tempo of the match. The Socceroo threatened Sydney’s back four with a series of creative attacks down the left, while Victor Sikora, himself coming back from a hamstring tear, added more quality when he replaced Bulloch directly after he’d scored.
Sterjovski then underlined his class as he latched onto a great pass from Andy Todd before bursting forward and squaring the ball for Branko Jelic to seal the deal with two minutes remaining.
“The first half we always expected to be difficult because of the amount of changes,” Mitchell said.
“So that was always going to be tough but the game plan worked, clean sheet at half-time and we then could introduce the players when we seek fit.”
“If we had of started Mile and started Victor, then in the second half their intensity would have dropped a little bit,” said Mitchell, saying the introduction of two quality players firing on all cylinders meant the Glory didn’t drop its concentration and concede from a mistake, something the club’s done repeatedly over a four-match winless streak before Sunday.
“It was our intention to do what we did and luckily it paid off,” he said.
