Special moments win grand finals and James Leonard and his Dubbo Bulls did that when they carried off the Western Premier Soccer League Championship with a decisive 3-1 victory over arch-rivals Westside Panthers.
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One of the biggest crowds to watch a soccer grand final in Dubbo turned up for the game on Saturday at Lady Cutler and weren’t disappointed.
Two magnificent strikes from the boot of Leonard and another goal from Aaron Taylor allowed the Bulls to have all the running while the Panthers took 75 minutes to break the opposition defensive line.
The independent judge gave his player of the match to Tom McKeon (No.8) for the Bulls while best players in each side, judged by the referees, were Robbie Phair (7) for the Bulls and Justin Sutton (9) for the Panthers.
The Bulls had an Aaron Taylor goal disallowed in the 5th minute when ruled off side, but 15 minutes later it was the same man on the ball to give them first blood.
Then just before half-time, the Panthers were penalised from 35 metres out and despite the defensive wall Leonard banged a left footer to the left and gave Nic Barber no chance in goal.
Two goals up was a good 45 minutes work for the Bulls who looked more decisive and in reality the Panthers were missing their captain Alan Auld who decided just before the game that his groin injury wouldn’t hold up and that was the end of his grand final dream.
At the 55th-minute mark it was Leonard who again delivered for the Bulls. A Westside hand ball in the square saw the striker go to the spot and again Barber wasn’t able to keep the ball out.
Westside’s only goal came through the urgency of a Colby Pellow strike but by that stage the grand final had been decided.
A dejected Alan Auld paid tribute to the Bulls: “They took their chances and it was as simple as that,” he said.
“We had some good ball but didn’t capitalise.
“Definitely the effort was there from our players but the Bulls were strong all over the park and were on to us every time we had quality ball in the right areas.
“The Bulls were clinical today as they have been all season and were on their game for a good win.”
The win highlighted a great result for the season.
They went into 2011 as the defending champions after having got the better of Waratahs in a penalty shoot-out.
It’s was always going to be a challenge for coach Scott Fox and later in the piece Craig Biles but everyone dug in and their rewards came on Saturday.
n Dubbo FC Bulls 3 (Aaron Taylor 20th; James Leonard 45th, 55th) Dubbo Westside Panthers 1 (Colby Pellow 7th).
