He added with a smile: "No, I didn’t but I did say patience was important

“We discussed it during the week. We’ve scored early in all three of our ACL games but that wasn’t always going to be the case."

FC banged in three goals in the second half to reignite their ACL dreams.

“I had a feeling they’d sit back and absorb the pressure and they played quite well in that first half. We addressed the situation at half time by trying to use more width and to keep the ball more than we did.”

Culina also paid tribute to Ulster terrier Terry McFlynn who played an important role in subduing Persik’s go-to man Fagundez.

“It was touch and go with Terry playing but you know how coaches have these stupid dreams in the night and you wake up and think I really should do this or that.

“Fagundez gave us trouble in Indonesia and we decided to take him out of the game. So Terry’s role was to take him and in the end he actually set up the third goal.

“It is difficult to play every few weeks. We literally ran over them in the second half and we’ve been questioned about our fitness recently," Culina added.

The newly appointed supremo also was keen to underplay the loss against Persik two weeks ago, describing it as “hiccup”.

“We simply didn’t handle the conditions and we played poorly at the same time, but it’s not that we got carried away in Indonesia,” he said.

But he believes Sydney FC will get better and he is impressed with what his limited squad achieved last night. “We’re not playing as well I’d like us to as we could but in the second half we made things happen, and that’s the attribute of a very good side.

“Mark Milligan was superb in a role he’s not as accustomed to. Uffy [Talay] is a great player and Mark Rudan was superb even though he was not fully fit. And I’ve got to give credit to a guy named Nikolai Topor-Stanley.

“I mean, the guy is leaving us at the end of the ACL group games and yet he’s been absolutely superb. I take my hat off to him. A tremendous character and I’m sad he’s not staying with us.”

Double goal hero Corica said the win was a deserved reward for Culina from the players after the manager was given his new two-year contract this week.

“I think it showed tonight in the display. I think the boys are very pleased,” he said.

“We’ve got a nice style of football with a pass and move style and I think we showed that tonight. The boys are delighted. The board made a great decision in appointing Branko.

“We’ve got a lot of good ball players and Branko is working on that pass and move style in training and it’s working well. It was a bit difficult to break them down but after that first goal, we knew we’d get a couple more.”

Corica described the result in Shanghai between Shenhua and the Reds as “fantastic news.” “They might do us a favour,” added Corica looking ahead to Urawa’s visit to Indonesia.

Meantime, all eyes are now on the Shanghai Shenhua's visit to Sydney on May 9. Emboldened by their 0-0 draw with Urawa, this will be another difficult test before what is looming as FC's crucial match in Japan later in May.

“We’re the only team in our group to win on the road. As it stands, if we get a good result against Shanghai then that game will probably decide the group," said Culina.

“We want to have differing styles of play and we’re working on changing the tempo of the game. These are things we’re working on not only for the ACL but for the A-League. We’re not quite there, but we’re working on it.”

Corica added: “We’ve got two tough games coming up. The next one is most important. If we get a good result against the Chinese side we’ll go to Japan and it should be a fantastic game in front of a huge crowd.”

And with Corica a former J-League player, he’ll be doubly keen to impress. Asked about his own stunning form in the ACL – he’s scored four times in the competition so far - the former Socceroo replied, “I try to lead by example.”