Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka is refusing to get carried away with his club's first win of the season, saying it's merely a stepping stone towards moving up the Hyundai A-League table.
The premiership hangover has certainly been a long and nasty one for the Sky Blues as they failed to win any of their first 10 matches this season to be sitting last on the table.
But the defending champions showed exactly what they were still capable of on Sunday, emphatically beating Perth 3-0 with goals coming through Alex Brosque and a Bruno Cazarine double.
Lavicka was certainly not prepared to say that one quality result was the end of Sydney's struggles this season.
"We waited a long time for the first victory this season," Lavicka said.
"There was a lot of criticism, first part of this season towards us, especially after the last game in Melbourne, but this is the right answer from the team."
"I am very happy and I am satisfied. It's only one step forwards but an important step for us."
"(But) I don't like to talk towards the media, (and say) we will reach the grand final this season."
"We need to do (things) step by step, hard work and keep going. Team unity and hard work, that's mainly the focus for us in this moment."
Sky Blues captain Terry McFlynn said it was about time the side put an opposition team away.
"Eleven games now and I think we've dominated eight games," McFlynn said.
"Today we got the goals and went on with it and won the game."
"We were always on the right track, it was just about getting the goals and being ruthless enough to win the game, we showed that tonight."
However, there was one negative to come out of the performance, as star midfielder Nicky Carle received another knock in what's already proved an injury-plagued season for the star signing.
"He has some injury, but it's hard to say now what he has," Lavicka said.
"In the first half it was his ankle and after that he was tired after about 60 minutes before we replaced him, but we will see tomorrow after the medical check."