Bougainville hold out Central for win

BOUGAINVILLE’S better organised defence enabled them beat Central United 2-0 in their Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd National Soccer League Southern Conference round six match at the Sir John Guise Stadium on Saturday.
The Bougainvilleans’ defence was the telling factor as they stepped to snuff out numerous Central raids while turning the tables on their Papuan opponents at the opposite end of the field.
Bougainville goalkeeper Paul Petersen impressed with his direction and anticipation from the goal mouth.
Bougainville hit the front with a Philip Serubi cross which found Abel Redenut, pictured, who scored in the 20th minute for a 1-0 lead which they held at halftime
Central had the wind behind them in the second half and swept into Bougainville half looking for opportunities to pry open the Bougainville defence but to no avail.
In the 70th minute Bougainville’s Eaka Philemon made it 2-0 with a well-placed strike which saw Central heads go down.
Bougainville then closed out the match playing risk-free football and forcing Central into rushing into their plays as they looked to get onto the board.
Bougainville coach David Passam said the win had been built on ensuring their defence was spot on while their attack fed of that surety in the back.
“We kept to our game plan and pushing the ball out wide and forcing the opposition wider to execute to create the opportunities and the timing was good enough to score those two goals,” Passam said.
“We’ve worked hard on being better defensively and you saw that with the way we held them out and kept them scoreless.
“This was not easy we had to work bit extra hard and smarter to win this in the end.”