The midfielder’s first A-League treble was a major factor in a thoroughly deserved away win for the Glory with Leo Bertos the other scorer – his first goal for the club.

Missing key players Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Simon Colosimo and Mitchell Prentice, Mitchell admitted he had pre-match concerns at the task facing his patched up side but that they had shown tremendous strength in adversity.

He said: “It was fantastic, very pleasing. Everyone had written us off and thought we weren’t going to get a result.

"I was a bit worried myself with the line up we had going into the game. But we tried a couple of things and they paid off handsomely in the way we played.

“To get a win off the back of last week’s result was credit to the boys. It wasn’t just the win, it was the way we played football. There was a lot of skill and flair in a convincing win.”

Celeski’s hat-trick was clearly a special moment for the player himself and while his coach was thrilled, he hopes it will serve to push the midfielder on towards even greater efforts.

Mitchell said: “Billy Celeski is technically a very good player.

"It’s very hard to play him in the line up sometimes and where you want to play him is in behind the front two because that’s probably his best position.

"Probably Billy’s not been the hardest worker but he knows that’s what his goal is now, to work hard. If we can get the ball to Billy Celeski’s feet he’s a terrific player and he showed tonight he’s a good finisher as well.”

With Prentice and skipper Colosimo both unavailable, Mitchell chose to play Jamie Coyne and James Robinson in midfield.

He said: “I was very worried because Sydney have a lot of movement up front and dropping into midfield.

"With Simon and Mitchell missing, both who have been playing very well for us, I just wanted to block it up a little bit.

"They played fantastically. Jerry Karpeh led the line well in what is a big step up for him.”

Having seen two men red carded in last week’s thrashing at Wellington Phoenix Mitchell joked that having ‘two more men’ probably helped in trying to defeat Sydney.

And as to whether it had been a bad night at the office for Sydney or just a very good one for Perth Glory Mitchell replied: “Probably a bit of both.

"I think we probably made them play bad the way we played. The boys had a bit of grit between their teeth.

"I just said to them before the game that no-one expects you to get a result except us in here (dressing room).

“Kossie’s done very well, turned them around and had some great results. It was probably just a time for the bubble to burst and we caught them on a bad night, they caught us on a good night.”

Victory wasn’t enough to lift the Glory off the bottom but the coach feels they are certainly heading in the right direction. Just how far they can rise in the remaining few rounds remains to be seen.

Mitchell said: “Mathematically it’s still possible to make the four but it’s going to be very hard.

"We’ve three games on the spin at home though. We win all our three and then it might be up to that last game with Newcastle.”