Australia's 3-1 win over Honduras saw Jedinak step up big time for the Socceroos with his three second half goals easing the nerves and tension of almost 80,000 ecstatic fans at ANZ Stadium in Sydney last night.

A dull first half was characterised by Honduras slowing down the game with fouls and time wasting tactics.

But the Socceroos' dominant team play was finally rewarded with Jedinak opening the scoring via a deflected free kick in the 53rd minute. 

Australia then doubled their lead in the 72nd minute when Jedinak scored a firmly placed penalty that gave the diving Honduras goal keeper Donis Escobar no chance.

Jedinak's second spot kick in the 84th minute was again cooly taken but this time sent Escobar the wrong way and in the end Australia ran out comfortable 3-1 winners.

After the match, a jubilant Jedinak said he had never put away three goals in a game before.

“It’s the only hat-trick I’ve scored and one that I’m very, very grateful for,” he said.

“We all knew the magnitude of the game and we came up with the goods tonight. It was our duty to get the job done and that’s what we did.

"I’m very grateful and really happy that I was able to contribute and help the boys as much as I could.”

Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou said Jedinak’s performance showed how important his captain was to Australia after a five-month injury lay-off.

“It was great to see him out there tonight,” he said. “He’s obviously missed the end bit of our campaign. It was right that he was out there today.

"Right from day one Mile stood up and he’s been an outstanding captain, an outstanding leader on and off the park.

“When we started four years ago it was almost from zero in terms of experience.

"It was really important to me the players that did stay on, the experienced players like Mile, like Tim Cahill, like Mark Milligan they had to be, not just be good players but good characters, they had to buy into what I was trying to do."

The Socceroos needed 22 games to get to the World Cup in Russia next year and Jedinak said doing it the hard way after missing out on direct qualification had strengthened the team's resolve.

“It builds a test of character,” he said.

 “We’ve had a play-off series that has been do or die, not only these two but the Syria games as well. They build resilience, that are not nothing games the home and the away games and it’s about turning up and performing on those big occasions and I thought in every single one of those games we did that.

“Albeit we needed extra time in the other one but tonight we got the job done in 90 minutes; that’s credit to everyone involved here.”