Passam hails Bougainville’s ‘pressing defence’ in victory against Gulf

By NATHAN WOTI
UPNG journalism student
BougaInville coach David Passam praised his side’s “pressing defence” for helping secure a 3-2 win over Gulf Komara in the opening Kumul Petroleum National Soccer League fixture at the Papua New Guinea Football Stadium in Port Moresby on Saturday.
Bougainville side opened the scoring with a strike from Jonathan Allen nine minutes into the game.
The game was in a balance until the 26 minute when winger Danny Vetali squeezed one past the Komara goalkeeper to push Bougainville out to a 2-0 lead.
But Komara pulled one back through winger Pala Paul to go into halftime trailing 1-2.
At the start of the second half, Komara came out strong and looked dangerous in attack.
But Bougainville scored their third goal through striker Basil Jofari.
A late strike by Komara forward Arah could not rescue his side as Bougainville sealed victory.
“We controlled the game very well with our pressing defence early on,” Passam said.
“But we took our foot off the pedal to allow Komara to score their first goal.
“In the second half, we didn’t control the game well enough to be comfortable. But we scored our third goal and after that we didn’t do much to control the game. I’m just happy for the win.”