It was the goal that sealed the game, but Sam Darley was left guessing longer than he hoped as to whether he could claim it as his own.

After Luke Dahlhaus jammed the ball on his boot , snapping back over his shoulder towards goal, the ball look destined to miss to the left.

But with an off-break any test spinner would be proud of, the ball jagged hard right towards the goal face, where Darley was waiting.

VIDEO: Watch Sam Darley's match sealing goal on BulldogsTV.

It was a goal regardless, but the decision was whether Darley had gathered the ball before the line and got boot to ball, or whether Dahlhaus had created something from nothing.

“I wasn’t one hundred percent sure if it was over the line or not, so I kept looking at the umpire hoping he was going to give me the benefit of the doubt, lucky enough they called it a goal ” Darley told BulldogsTV in the rooms post match.

“I let out a little bit of emotion just due to the fact that I thought the Saints were coming at us late, to kick that one probably really sealed it, it was a pretty good feeling.”

It was Darley’s first goal as a Bulldog, and only the second of his 17-game AFL career that started at the GWS Giants.

In his fourth senior appearance for the Dogs, Darley compiled his best performance since debuting in the red, white and blue, collecting 17-disposals at tidy 88 percent efficiency.

With the open nature of the contest, Darley said there was little time to think with the ball flying from end-to-end at breakneck speed.

“Playing at half back and on the wing, the ball was going up and down, you had no time to catch your breath at all,” Darley said.

“We tried to close it down at times, we didn’t manage to do really.

“I’m sure we’ll have a look at that, and ways that we can slow down the tempo, and catch our breath when we win the footy back, but we’re happy to win the four points.”