Sydney wasted an opportunity to annihilate a ten-man Perth Glory after going in at half time 4-1 up.
But even if their coach was disappointed after a lacklustre second half display, fans were no doubt happy to see their team near the top of the table again.
Despite the scoreline, there's no reason for Sydney to be smug. Simon Colosimo had a shocker (a Perth supporter's wish - that the 'coup off-season signing' was as embarrassing for Sydney as he had been for his old club - came true) and the backline was always vulnerable until Tony Popovic came on late in the game.
Perth performed well in second half and, had it not been for the indiscipline of Dino Djulbic who was sent off and could see five matches from the stands for 'unsporting conduct toward a match official' (spitting in dissent at a penalty decision), the outcome could have been very different.
A few more season ticket holders were sitting around me than in Sydney?s first home game, but the overall crowd numbers were disappointing.
John Aloisi was on the bench beside Popovic - Under what circumstances would coach John Kosmina risk introducing him?
I was warned to keep an eye out for Perth's playmaker, Amaral. And he won his team a free kick soon after kickoff.
But Sydney drew first blood. In less than two minutes. Alex Brosque latched onto a poorly directed back pass from Djulbic, dashed past Jamie Coyne, rounded Frank Juric and slotted home. Woo-hoo!
Steve Corica must have thought, "Well if it's that easy!" as he too effortlessly cut into the Perth penalty area; but Mark Bridge did not anticipate Corica's ball toward the goal box.
Then Sydney spent a few minutes trying to replicate Perth's buffoonery and were saved only by Adrian Trinidad twice being caught offside.
Nothing saved them in the 12th minute - particularly not goalkeeper Clint Bolton, who let Eugene Dadi score with an uncontested header on an Amaral free kick from the right touchline after another foul on the Brazilian. Bolton acted as though the header was going wide or wouldn?t count for some reason.
Trinidad made Mitchell Prentice look silly and Amaral earned some jeers from the crowd for winning yet another free kick and then falling over after the whistle had blown.
Sydney's second goal came from a penalty in the 20th minute when Corica was brought down by Adriano Pellegrino. Corica converted even though Juric got a hand to the ball. But more serious damage was done by Djulbic's tantrum and consequent departure.
Crowd favourite Shannon Cole executed a beautiful tackle to dispossess Trinidad, Dadi was up front mostly on his lonesome and Corica sweetly evaded both Trinidad and Amaral, who with only nine teammates was required to play more defensively (and less interestingly).
Cole and James Downey got to know each other better and Amaral often had three blue-shirted friends for company. He must have been a tad frustrated, kicking the ball into the back of Terry McFlynn and bowling over Corica.
Brosque swung over a lovely cross from the left but no-one was on the end of it.
Sydney understandably now had lots of possession and a few players, including Cole, were getting cocky with it.
Brosque skilfully caught a long ball into the D, turned Jamie Coyne but shot wide.
Then the game started to atrophy. Sydney got sloppy. And Perth had no ideas.
Trinidad got onto a loose ball in the Sydney penalty area and, with no support, scuffed it nowhere.
In the 39th minute Corica played into the right of the Perth penalty area for Brosque who got away from Nikolai Topor-Stanley and crossed to Bridge who met Coyne on the ball in front of goal and scored.
A similar sequence of play four minutes later saw a cross from Fyfe on the right twice flicked on, the second time by Bridge for Cole to score - a well deserved goal, according to Sydney supporters behind me. Sydney were 4-1 ahead.
Cole for the third time tried to test Coyne with his pace and was brought down on his way toward the left side of the Perth penalty area. He took the free kick himself, blocked at the goal box.
In the 45th minute Bolton made a great save on another free header in front of goal from a cross on the right.
Cole had some more fun with Downey and Coyne and Sydney received a standing ovation from fans around me as they left they field at half time.
Nikita Rukavytsya replaced Trinidad and the second half began with Bolton soon having to make a decent save.
Amaral gave Pellegrino some mouth for not returning a pass, and Corica beat three Perth players in their penalty area and got the ball across the face of goal but Brosque arrived too late. Fans around me started getting critical of their number 14.
Bridge nutmegged Topor-Stanley.
Then Colosimo casually gave the ball to Scott Bullock (what the heck, we're well ahead, give the poor bastards a chance) and backed away until Bullock tried to shoot - over the crossbar.
Aloisi started warming up.
Colosimo half-heartedly shouldered Topor-Stanley in the Sydney penalty area but the Perth defender had no trouble crossing. Amaral on the right of the box beat his marker and shot on target. Bolton saved but didn?t hold and the Perth player breathing down his neck missed a wonderful opportunity to drag a goal back.
Sydney conceded a free kick on the edge of the area and Dadi shot high.
David Tarka fouled McFlynn outside the Perth penalty area, Popovic replaced Timpano - Timpano? What about Colosimo? Put him out of his misery, and Prentice's free kick was deflected just wide of Perth's right post.
Dadi went up for a header over Colosimo, whose feet had grown roots, on another good cross from the right. Mercifully for Sydney and Colosimo the ball went over the crossbar.
In the 66th minute Cole was replaced by Aloisi. Aloisi's entrance was much anticipated, but there was good applause for Cole before the roar that welcomed the Socceroo hero.
Bridge took Cole's position on the left and was soon getting the better of Amaral and Aloisi took pride of place at the front where he started barking instructions.
Colosimo - not unlike Djulbic frustrated by his own poor performance - then rewarded Perth for their perseverance by pushing Dadi in the back. Penalty. Dadi scored his second.
Sydney almost immediately struck back and Juric's skills were reawakened. The ball fell for Sydney on the left of the Perth penalty area. Juric blocked the first shot but the ball popped up and the subsequent header was deflected for a corner.
Two balls came through for Aloisi. For one he was offside and with the other he misread Corica's good intentions.
In the 79th minute Iain Fyfe crossed from the right and Juric saved Aloisi's header. Corica's shot on the rebound was deflected over the crossbar.
Three minutes later another Fyfe cross came from the right, but low this time. Aloisi's shot was saved by Juric, who also saved Bridge's shot on the rebound.
Dez Giraldi gave Corica a rest and Anthony Skorich and Nick Rizzo came on for Perth. Too late to do much good.
Amaral, increasingly frustrated, copped his yellow card for a foul on Brosque.
Then Bridge got the ball on the left edge of the Perth penalty area and played in for Aloisi who would have scored if Topor-Stanley hadn?t intervened and turned the ball into his own net.
Perth came straight back and won a corner off a low cross from the left.
A Colosimo air swing gave Perth a final chance, with Rizzo shooting at the left post where Bolton saved low.
Highlights for Perth were Amaral - who thinks he is better than he is and should be playing indoor, according to one Sydney critic - and Scott Bulloch.
Cole was probably one of those Kosmina criticised for unnecessarily running the ball, but he was entertaining. Not enough was seen of Aloisi to assess his impact but one might wonder how close the Sydney line-up toward the end of the game was Kosmina?s preference, with Bridge wide and Aloisi and Brosque up front (better than Cole wide and Aloisi and Bridge at the front?) and no room for Timpano at the back.
With most players fit, Kosmina is not short of quality options.
The after match press conference:
John Kosmina said he was satisfied with his team's win "up to a point".
"We ended up not finishing them (Perth Glory) off in the second half as we should have done.
"We discussed it at half time, but Perth worked really hard in the second half and we stopped working.
"We started doing silly things; we didn't go on with it. During the two week break we are going to work hard and get John (Aloisi) and Poppa (Tony Popovic) up to speed.
"Neither of them was really 100 per cent fit but I still wanted to get them both some game time today.
Stand-in captain, Steve Corica, mentioned that the pitch was heavy. That, he suggested, was why the players did not go on with the job towards the end.
"This is probably the best start to a season we have had," he said, when asked if his side had done this well before.
Kosmina was not getting carried away with the scoring spree by his team in its last couple of matches.
"It's been poor defending by our opponents as much as outstanding attacking by us," he admitted.
"That's what has allowed us to score many more goals in the last two games. But I must say we were fairly solid defensively today, which pleased me a lot."
Beaten Perth Glory coach, Dave Mitchell, was asked if the penalty and the send-off was the turning point in the game.
"Yes, the red card killed us and playing Sydney at home was never going to be easy either.
"It was sloppy play by us. They scored a couple of goals by capitalising on our mistakes."
Maybe some of the refereeing decisions were a little bit harsh," he ventured. "They could have cost us the game."
Asked if he had anything to say about his player's dismissal, he offered more than he indicated at first.
"It's an internal matter," he began, but went on to say, "He let the club and his fellow players down and we had words about it in the dressing room at half time."
"I thought it was a gutsy performance in the second half. We created a couple of good chances. We have a good squad but keep shooting ourselves in the foot and we can't afford to go on doing that.
"If we begin to show more discipline we should be OK. If we can eradicate the errors we can still challenge for a top four spot.
"People keep writing us off and they can still do that, we don't mind.
"Once we cut out the silly tackles in and around the box and stop getting guys sent off and giving penalties away things will be a lot better," he concluded.