Juninho Paulista twice rattled the crossbar in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Adelaide United while defender Mark Rudan also kissed the frame of the goal with a first half effort.

Alex Brosque did find the net but his 74th minute goal was swiftly cancelled out with Nathan Burns pouncing on a defensive blunder.

Culina, who later bemoaned ‘soft’ and ‘stupid’ goals conceded in the match, joked that Juninho was perhaps taking a training ground session a little too literally.

He said: “We’ve been having this competition in training where you hit the post and get this certain bonus as points.

"Somebody must have forgotten to tell him that in a game it’s better to score than hit the post. You have to say he’s an exciting player. I’d like to think that when we get it sorted out this is going to be a great team.”

Saturday’s match also provided new boy Patrick with his first chance to show the Sydney fans what he can do.

He entered the fray at the start of the second half, replacing injured skipper Tony Popovic (who suffered a back problem following a collision).

Culina said: “I thought he (Patrick) did well. I thought there was a lot to like about him.

"He’s one of those intruiging players, you don’t quite know what to expect. He held the ball up well and he’s got a touch of speed."

He added: “Popa has got a bad knock to his back. It doesn’t look good. Any volunteers for next week in defence?

“Juninho has got a sore shoulder. We’ll be looking for recruits for the Perth trip.

“We’re playing some good football and we’ve some good quality players. It’s the little mistakes we need to eliminate.

"We’re an ageing side and therefore we need to keep the ball, play closer together both in attack and defence. We do that well for part of the game.”

Goalscorer Brosque felt he could have helped his side emerge with more than a point, despite latching on to Juninho’s threaded pass to net his first goal of the season 16 minutes from time.

"I’m not really too pleased," he said: “We were attacking well and looked like we were going to hold on for the 2-1, even push on for a third. It’s disappointing.

"We had a lot of fans out and a lot of fans out last week and it’s just disappointing not to be able to give them a win."

“I had a few chances that I should have done better with. I could have had a couple more," he added.

“In the end, even though I got the goal it’s only got us a point so I’ll look back at the first half chances that I had and think that I probably could have had the three points wrapped up earlier on in the match."