If Babbel was feeling the pressure heading into the cellar-dwellar clash against the Mariners, the purple blazer, striped socks and fashionably sported chinos didn't show it. 

"I didn't want to change teams so I had to change something," he laughed. “This is what I wanted to see. I said 'C'mon, this is what we want to see.'"

"If you go into a game with fear, you don't have a chance. Listen, you are here in Australia, in a paradise city. The worst thing that can happen is you finish last and there's no conseqeuence."

But while the opening half was a tad lethargic - the Wanderers' two natural fullbacks failing to capitalise on the Mariners' none until three minutes into extra time - when Keanu Baccus hit a driven effort plum into the bottom left, the Wanderers sprang to life.

"Very happy, that one came off sweeter than normal," Baccus said. "Last week was a poor performance but I think it was a one off, we weren't great, but we were a bit better."

Against the Mariners, Alex Baumjohann's class made his side's lack of an experienced supportive midfield largely redundant. 

The opener signalled an interesting transition for Western Sydney, who were content in using Baumjohann's range to counter the Mariners in the first 45, but quickly became more dominant as the second wore on.

"It's amazing, he's an amazing talent and we learn from him every day," Baccus continued. "He teaches us a lot."

The German's influence culminated in a silky string of passes and Jaushua Sotirio's first goal of the season, tapping in Ben Kennedy's inability to hold Bruce Kamau's driven shot.

"First of all I'm very happy that we won. It was bad luck against Newcastle and a very bad performance against Victory," Baumjohann said. On his time in Australia, he sounded a little more uncertain.

"Yeah...," he said uncertainly. "I'm here now for three months...I'm really enjoying it, I'm just looking forward."

But on his compatriot managers' influence on the club, Baumjohann was bouyant.

"That was our second win of the season and the first (Babbel) wasn't even on the bench," he laughed. "So I'm very happy for him."

Sotirio's sealer was the third goal in a row, across multiple matches, that Mike Mulvey's side have conceded due to lapse pressing on shots from outside the box and the winless Mariners were understandably disappointed.

"Mate it's beyond frustrating, we talk all week about how well we're going to start, then a minute before halftime it's a sucker punch," a very frustrated Mariners captain, Matt Simon said.

"Of course (we can still make finals). I can't see them being too many points ahead of us, it's all well training all week but you've got to bring it to the game and tonight just wasn't good enough."