Macarthur FC have returned from Adelaide happy to get a draw against the home side last night.
The big smile from head coach Mile Sterjovski and his staff at the conclusion of the round 12 match told you all you needed to know about how the Bulls felt about the 1-1 result.
A lot of the satisfaction for the Macarthur FC coaching staff would have come from the performance of the team, one of the best this season without a doubt.
The Bulls have played a lot of games in the past six weeks and are down on troops courtesy of injuries or other factors such as international commitments.
Last Friday night at Campbelltown Stadium the Bulls looked physically tired in the first half against Newcastle.
Desperate to avoid a historic fourth defeat in a row, they found a second wind in the second half and a last gasp equaliser to salvage a 1-1 draw.
Just three days later they were on a plane bound for Adelaide in what is a strange bit of scheduling from the A-League.
What is strange is that the Adelaide United and Macarthur FC clash is the only round 12 match to be played.
The other five round 12 matches will be scheduled after this weekend’s United Round – also another bit of curious scheduling.
United Round is apparently deemed to be an extra round to the normal 26 rounds for the 2023-24 A-League season.
It makes it, in effect, Round 27. [The Bulls kick off Unite Round this Friday against Western United].
But back to last night’s game, which was a really classy game of football.
The home side grabbed the momentum from the get-go and the Bulls just tried to survive.
But after wave after wave of attack the dam broke and the home side scored 16 minutes into the first half.
But as usually happens, the Bulls responded by going on the attack and created two or three serious chances but could not convert any, including a cannon shot from Ulises Davila that just missed.
Three minutes later, 32 minutes into the first half, the Bulls equalised off the back of a move an EPL team would be proud to call their own.
A rapid transition allowed Kearyn Baccus to get behind the Adelaide defence and cross the ball to Valere Germain (pictured above celebrating)- who buried it into the back of the net for his sixth goal of the season.
The sides went to the break locked at 1-1 and despite some brilliant attacks by both in the second half that was the final score.
For the Bulls there were so many good performers but if we had to single some out Jake Hollman, Baccus and Nicolaou were outstanding.
Goalie Filip Kurto had his usual solid game, saving at least two goals.
All up, this Bulls team is anything but a pub team and will give the premiership a shake this season.
