A superbly well-taken goal from Brett Holman, a penalty from Luke Wilkshire and a penalty save by Adam Federici combined to gift the Socceroos victory.

The win came despite going down to ten men when sub Brett Emerton - who replaced the injured Holman  - was dismissed for two yellows in swift succession for dissent after being booked for a minor foul.

Australia withstood intense pressure for much of the game but the Poles were imply unable to convert a myriad of chances to get them back in the game.

At full-time a very happy Osieck praised his players for standing firm in face of the Polish onslaught.

"When you look at the performance and the commitment of the players, then I definitely have to gve credit to the players," he said.

"If you take the second half, one man down, they really showed some good tech discipline. Against a team like Poland - they are good players, they pressed us back."

But he admitted he didn't like everything he saw on the pitch at Kracow.

"Tthere was some situations in the game I actually didn't like," he said. "At least they tried hard. When they made mistakes, they tried to correct them.

"Internally we'll need to work out and correct a couple of things, but right now I think for their gutsy performance, the boys got a win."

He also revealed what had sparked Emerton's second red to get the Socceroo veteran dismissed.

"I asked Emmo and after the foul he used a very popular word with the four letters and so obviously the ref although he's from Croatia, he obviously understood English," said Osieck.

"Adam Federici had a fantastic game. I think we can be happy to have two goalkeepers of extra class.

"Mark showed it in the first game against Switzerland and Adam he showed a fantastic game today."

Fringe Socceroo defender Jon McKain gave away the penalty that Federici dived to save and ensure the win, but Osieck was gentlemanly in his appraisal of the former Wellington Phoenix player's game.

"He was one of the players from our squad that I hadn't seen play so I decided to give him 90 minutes and I think he had a very solid game," said Osieck.

And the new coach said he was confident about Australia's chances in the Asian Cup in January after seeing their performance under pressure in the last two games.

He added: "I'm pretty confident about this - I know Asia.

"I know some of the countries are even more hostile than today - they were vocal but there was no missiles, it was okay - they tried to support their own team. They were vocal, but not bad."

Penalty hero Luke Wilkshire admitted Australia were under the cosh but was relieved to have taken the victory - and delighted to have got to take the spotkick that secured the win.

"It was tough game," he said after the final whistle. "We have played a lot better in recent games but it's still a good win. I've been waiting to take a penalty for a while - it's nice to get the win."

"It was difficult for us already and obviously when Emmo went off, obviously it was very difficult for us but we defended well."

He added: "It was to be expected - with 10 men, they were coming for us, they were looking for the equaliser but we held strong.

"Away from home, it was a good game to have, they're a good team, the atmosphere here was great so it was a hard fought victory."