Australia squeaked past an attractive and well organised Oman 1-0 on Wednesday night thanks to a late winner from Tim Cahill.

The three points reinvigorated the Socceroos' Asian Cup 2011 qualifying campaign, putting them on four points from three games on par with the Omanis at the top of the group.

The victory comes on the back of a 0-0 friendly draw with world power Holland in Sydney last Saturday night.

While the Socceroos have not set the world on fire with their fluency in the front third, the trademark defensive side has continued to stand firm with two more clean sheets.

Former national youth team coach Ange Postecoglou agrees the Socceroos continue to be a tough side to defeat, but he has concerns.

"We're certainly very dominant at the back and we don't give up things too easily," he said. "But going forward I still don't think we have the fluency we really want or need in terms of the personnel and the way we set up.

"If we don't get an early goal and the opposition get some confidence then we find it hard to break teams down. I still think the national team is a work in progress going into a World Cup."

The positives, said Postecoglou, were that Lucas Neill played two much needed games, Brett Emerton also had a run, both after a long injury lay-off, and German Bundesliga based Dario Vidosic got a chance to show his potential for the future.

"When Pim analyses the matches, he'll say the two games were definitely a pass mark but with hope for improvement," said Postecoglou, currently a football analyst with Fox Sports.

"And the players probably feel a little hard done because the expectations have been raised. People now want them to dominate opposition.

"But that's not necessarily a bad thing. We need to keep raising the bar."

Cahill once again came to the Socceroos' rescue with a poacher's goal to break the deadlock in the final 20 minutes. Postecoglou, a former two-time NSL championship winner who coached South Melbourne at the 2000 World Club Championships, said such a player in the team makes up for a lack of overall attacking fluency with his moments of brilliance.

"It's not luck. Every team has that kind of player who is there when you need him," added Postecoglou. "It just goes to show that even if we don't dominate teams - and we didn't last night - we're still capable of getting a result."

And Postecoglou paid tribute to Claude Le Roy's Oman who not only had a confident goalkeeper in Bolton's Ali Al Habsi but a mobile side that asked plenty of questions from midfield with Fawzi Bashir leading the charge.

He added Omani players should and could be a hit in the A-League based on Wednesday night and in the 2007 Asian Cup group stage where Cahill once again saved Australia with a last minute goal in a 1-1 draw .

"When you think about what's at our doorstep like Oman... Victory have picked up a couple of Thai players and I don't think they'd [Omani players] would look out of place in the A-League," Postecoglou said. 

"I guess that's one thing some A-League clubs have struggled to come to grips with, the whole recruiting strategy. As much as Asia is looking at Australia for players, the opposite should also happen."