It was a beautiful afternoon at a packed Jubilee Stadium. The football wasn’t quite as pretty.

Sydney were really well organised and Victory couldn’t handle the high press. In the first 20 minutes just about every Victory player missed a pass or nine.

Both headlining strikers scored in the first half, although neither goal will adorn a highlights reel. In fact, Sydney were very lucky to be given a soft penalty.

The second half was mostly more of the same until Leigh Broxham and Keisuke Honda combined to break the deadlock.

Sydney FC

Andrew Redmayne - 5.5

Didn’t have much to do for most of the night. He faced Honda’s penalty with an unorthodox technique that didn’t pay off. He gets marked down half a point for the indignity of his effort.

Rhyan Grant - 6

The man, the myth, the mullet. Cheered on by wig wearing fans, he made a good return from Socceroos duty without really standing out. Could have headed in a goal after a good back post run. He wanted a lot more from tonight’s game and the frustration got to him.

Alex Wilkinson - 6

Did his best to deal with Toivonan but the big Swede won most duels. Wilkinson seemed to win the more important ones though.

Jop van der Linden - 6

In what was often a scrappy game, he was very tidy, until he got sucked into that foul by the cunning Keisuke Honda.

Michael Zullo - 6.5

An often unsung part of the Sydney formation. He was excellent tonight. Especially defensively, Victory play quite narrow and this can create problems for opposition fullbacks as the Central Coast found out.