CULBURRA striker Jack Miller provided the killer blow against his former club Shoalhaven Heads, with a late header securing a 2-1 win at Culburra Oval on Saturday.
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They went into the game on equal points, but the win has now given Culburra some breathing space at the top of the table.
The home side actually trailed for most of the game, before coming up with two late goals to secure all three points on offer.
Heads managed to get on the board fairly early in the piece with Dane Tasker scoring the opening goal in the 18th minute.
Their defensive tactics held strong for most of the game, with keeper Dave Crapp coming up with a number of saves to keep the score at 1-nil.
It took more than 75 minutes for the Culburra attack to finally get one past, when Dale Blundell came up with an equaliser.
Breaking the drought seemed to lift the home side and they looked determined not to settle for a draw.
Culburra’s strike weapons Corey Ryan and Jack Miller had been kept relatively quiet for most of the game, but they showed they can always find a way to put it in the back of the net.
The duo combined to come up with the winner when a cross from Ryan found the head of Miller in the 86th minute.
While he was not too impressed with their first half performance, Culburra coach Tony Gauci was happy to get the win.
“They had their heads down at half time, so I gave them a bit of a blast, which is not something I would normally do,” he said.
“It must have worked, because they came back out and started playing proper soccer in the second half,” he added.
Although there were a few nervous moments, Gauci was always confident they could come back.
“Crappy was making some great saves, so it wasn’t through lack of opportunities,” he said.
“I think we were just waiting for the first one and our morale went right up after that,” he added.
Heads coach Ross Tasker was disappointed to not at least get a draw, but said it is how the game goes sometimes.
“We had our chances and to be honest, I thought we were the much better side in the first half,” Tasker said.
“But Culburra never say die and with guys like Corey and Jack, they just seem to be able to score goals that pop up out of nowhere,” he added.
Tasker still sees Culburra as the benchmark of the competition, but took some confidence from being able to compete with them for the whole game and thinks they can beat them in the future.
Dale Blundell, Aaron Mason, Scott Merivale and Josh and Lewis Bonney were named as Culburra’s best, while Dave Crapp, Conor Edenden, Jarod Ryding, Tim White and Ian Martyn all impressed for Heads.