Young Rangers aiming to wrangle in-form Bulli

Bulli had some mixed results during the opening half of this year's Premier League season, but have hit a remarkable run of form in the past fortnight, scoring 11 goals and conceding just two.

The 7-1 and 4-1 wins over Olympic and South Coast United respectively have seen the Balls Paddock team strengthen their hold on fifth position on the table, despite being kept under pressure from Coniston, Helensburgh and Port Kembla.

Bulli will now look to keep that winning momentum going when they travel to Memorial Park on Saturday.

"They've hit a purple patch, haven't they? They've had some decent results over the past few weeks and (coach) Julio (Miranda) has them back on track. But we'll be going in with the mindset of trying to get the three points and we won't make it easy for them," Mavridis said.

"They're obviously in a rich vein of form and scoring quite a few goals. Defensively, we've got to concentrate on not coughing up cheap balls. And Benny 'Mac' (McDonald) has been on fire of late, so we're going to have to watch him. But we've also got to stick with the way that we play and try to snatch a victory."

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Meanwhile, the Rangers have arguably been the IPL's biggest surprise packet, despite boasting one of the youngest squads.

Corrimal have accumulated six wins, highlighted by a 2-0 victory at home against Wollongong United a fortnight ago, to keep themselves within striking distance of the league's top five.

"Everyone knows that we've got a young side and over the last two or three weeks, we've had nine players under the age of 21. It's been good considering we're six points out of the five and if you had told us that at the start of the year, we would have taken that with both hands," Mavridis said.

"We had some success in our last home game against United, so hopefully that can play into our hands again."

For Bulli, Saturday's clash presents them with an opportunity to claim their ninth victory of the 2023 season.

McDonald has claimed a key role in their success, scoring 21 goals, but Miranda said he was happy with his side's form across the board.

"It's been about the attitude with our lads. They're working their socks off at training at the moment and there's a lot of competition, which has kept everyone on their toes," he said.

"When you get that (happening), it creates competition amongst the group, which gets everybody to bring their best out of each other."

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However, Miranda also refused to underestimate their opponents on Saturday.

"It's a massive game for us because there's a lot of around where we are on the table. So it would be nice to get the three points and consolidate our spot in the top five," the coach said.

"They're a young team and first time around when we played them, they made it very hard for us. They have a lot of enthusiasm.

"But we've prepared well this week and the boys know what they're up for, so we've just got to match them in that department and hopefully the football side of things will get us the cookies."

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