The reigning champions defeated Melbourne Victory 1-0 courtesy of a Thomas Deng own goal on 53 minutes.

A relieved Wilkinson was a key part of an impressive defensive display, but described the overall team performance as "a little rusty".

An understrength Victory were without three key players but still managed to dominate for large periods of the game as the Sky Blues soaked up the pressure.

“Whenever you come down here you’ve got to earn it,” Wilkinson told Fox Sports post-match.

“We were a little rusty, second half we didn’t do as much as we wanted. When you turn over possession easily you’re always on the back foot."

Wilkinson added: "We’ve got a lot of room for improvement on that, but this squad has a hell of a lot of belief. We showed that when we need to dig in, we can.

“It’s a natural reaction to drop, that last 10 minutes we dropped too much, but it’s a decent start.

“We look forward to the FFA cup now and we’ve got a couple of home games in a row.”

Sydney face off against South Melbourne on Wednesday in the semi-final of the FFA Cup.

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