By Alen Delic (@AlenDelic)

A late goal to Shaun Filipovic was the difference between Dandenong City and Bulleen Lions, with the hosts running out 2-1 winners.

Dandenong responded to an early charge from Bulleen by taking the lead through Shaun Filipovic, while Bulleen managed to nab an equaliser through Gianni De Nittis on the stroke of halftime.

It took almost the full 90 to separate the two sides, with Filipovic’s winner coming from a goalmouth scramble following a corner with just two minutes of play to go.

It was a frenetic opening to the game, with Bulleen looking the stronger in the first stanza.

The visitors had the lions’ share of the opening chances, opening up Dandenong City’s defence with long diagonal balls out to their wingers.

Left winger Takanori Nishimoto could have given Bulleen the early lead with a number of chances by clever balls from defence.

After the opening 15 minutes, Dandenong began to look in control of the game, with their midfield having settled and it came up with a way of stopping the supply to Bulleen’s forward three.

The home side had the first real chance of the game through Shaun Filipovic.

A short stop in play caught Bulleen’s defence unaware, giving Filipovic a chance to break.

He hit the byline, skinned his defenders and curled a shot with his right foot onto the far post.

That chance struck fear into the Bulleen defence.

Just mintes after, Dandenong again went close through captain John Carroll, nodding a corner just wide of goal.

It took little under half an hour to get the opening goal.

A killer ball by Sam Borghesi back to his goalkeeper Luke Gallo gave Shaun Filipovic a chance to get the first goal.

Filipovic pounced on Gallo and took the ball from the goalkeeper’s feet, giving his side the lead little under half an hour.

Gallo appeared to have tweaked a previous knock during the exchange, immediately clutching at his hip and calling to the bench. He was substituted for goalkeeper Fraser Maclaren.

After conceding, Bulleen began to settle and slow the pace of the game down fearing another mistake; the slow, calculated build-ups of the first quarter of an hour again began to show.

Bulleen started looking dangerous again, but Stevanja was up to the task, coming off his line to clean up any loose balls.

But it wasn’t long before Bulleen got their breakthrough.

A quick counter, beginning with a Kristian Sarkies interception was played out to Nishimoto on the wing, before finding De Nittis in the box.

De Nittis shot to Stevanja’s bottom left, with the young keeper getting something on it, but not enough, as the shot trickled over the line to bring the sides level into the half.

In the first minute of the second half, Nishimoto had a chance to put Bulleen ahead, as a cross found him on the edge of the six-yard-box, but the winger put the shot over with a volley.

An injury to Roberto Armellini just two minutes later forced Bulleen into their second substitution of the day, with the defender appearing to injure his knee before being stretchered off.

The conditions deteriorated and so did the quality of the game in the second half, with both sides struggling to find any rhythm.

Bulleen had the better of the opportunities, with De Nittis being released for a one-on-one with Stevanja, only to put the ball far to the keeper’s right, and well past the post.

With just a quarter of an hour to go, Nishimoto again had the chance to put his side ahead when he received the ball a few yards outside of the penalty area with his back to goal.

He rolled his defender inside and powered off a strong shot which cannoned off the crossbar and out of play.

The Bulleen side was missing their 18-goal powerhouse in Joseph Katebian, who was suspended for this game, and it looked to be heading to a stalemate when Dandenong City struck from a corner with two minutes to play.

A seemingly innocuous corner was lofted into the six-yard box by Dario Matkovic, only for it to not be cleared at the first attempt by the Bulleen defenders.

Shaun Filipovic proved quickest following the scramble, putting the ball past the substitute keeper with a half-volley and earning his side the full three points.

Dandenong City coach Ivan Duzel said he was happy with his squad’s performance given the injury problems he faced this week.

“Six players out of the first 11 are not playing, and two of them until the end of the season,” Duzel said.

“The young players want to step in and today a couple of them showed ability, attitude and character.”

The coach said he had to tweak the way his side was playing, as the system would not have worked with the players available.

“The ability that we have in the team at the moment isn’t all that high in terms of skill and speed,” he said.

“We have to go another way to make sure the players are tactically aware and aware of what we expect of them.

“We scored two goals, we didn’t create many opportunities but they didn’t either. I believe this sort of system we’re doing well.”

Bulleen coach Fabrizio Soncin was distraught after losing the point at the death, particularly with his side’s competence from set pieces.

“We’re just conceding so many goals from corners, from set pieces, it’s just ridiculous; it’s gone beyond a joke,” Soncin said.

“It’s a problem we have to fix and unfortunately we just can’t fix it at the moment.”

Soncin said his side’s performance deserved more goals, but they just couldn’t sharpen the sword in attack.

“I thought we controlled the game well in the first half,” he said.

“We didn’t create as many chances as we’d like with the amount of possession we’d like, but I thought we still had reasonable control of the game.

“Second half I thought was pretty scrappy with the conditions. But again it was the set pieces that killed us.”

MATCH DETAILS

DANDENONG CITY 2 (Filipovic 28’, 88’) defeated FC BULLEEN LIONS 1 (De Nittis 35’) at Frank Holohan Soccer Complex. [HT: 1-1]

DANDENONG CITY STARTING XI: 1. Marko STEVANJA 6. John CARROLL 9. Damian MISKULIN 19. Nicholas GLAVAN 12. Shaun FILIPOVIC (13. Adrian RISCHITELLI 91’) 5. Alex ROJAS (21. Anthony MIJAC 46’) 10. Sean SEAVILL 8. Dario MATKOVIC 3. Simon STOREY 2. Karim EL HILALI 17. Danijel BUHIC (4. Steven TOPALOVIC 87’)

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES: 31. Kirby ZIADA 15. Raphael SABLJAK

YELLOW CARDS: Matkovic 20’

RED CARDS: None

FC BULLEEN LIONS STARTING XI: 1. Luke GALLO (41. Fraser MACLAREN 28’) 2. Dean ROMAS 4. Sam BORGHESI 6. Alex DAO 8. Matteo MALLAN 9. Bardhi HYSOLI (13. Dean LORENZI  76’) 10. Takanori NISHIMOTO 11. Gianni DE NITTIS 26. Matt DIMECH 20. Robert ARMELLINI (31. Dylan BRESOLIN 49’) 21. Kristian SARKIES

SUBSTITUTES: 30. Joshua SABIDUSSI

YELLOW CARDS: 35’ Romas, 78’ Ballan

RED CARDS: None