Brandon O’Neill – 8.5

Five fouls in the first half, no card, no worries. The little niggler is key to Sydney’s ability to break up counters and disrupt play, and he showed a fine passing range to boot.

Alex Brosque – 7

It’s questionable whether his new role suits him. He lagged behind the rest of Sydney’s attacking lineup early, but grew in influence as he slowly worked his way both forward and into the game.

Dallied too long when through on goal and allowed Scott Neville to beat him, which is never a good sign.

Joshua Brillante – 7.5

Strong performance – he will score more goals if he keeps making those lung-busting late runs into the box.

He could have had a second goal in two games and provided Sydney a strong presence on the opposite side to Milos Ninkovic, leaving Perth stretched on more than one occasion.

Milos Ninkovic - 9

When isn’t he a 9 out of 10? When he’s a 10. He would have had two assists in the first 20 minutes if Bobo had his shooting boots on, but the classiest player in the A-League was all flicks and tricks until the final minute.

Bobo - 7

Too enthusiastic. Missed a sitter by his fine standards when he blazed over from a precision Ninkovic through ball, and a minute later blasted a penalty off the crossbar.

But even a stopped clock is right twice a day, and if you keep giving the Brazilian penalties, he’s bound to slot one away. To be fair, that goal was his fourth of the season, and he was heavily involved.

David Carney – 8

He may be the wrong side of 33, but if he keeps earning penalties Arnie wont care. It might be the fact that he’s bright red and looks physically exhausted within ten minutes, but referees clearly feel sorry for him and its working to Sydney’s favour.

Despite his age, Carney can still press and force turnovers, and he stacks up with the league’s best when it comes to slotting defence-splitting passes.

Adrian Mierzejewski – 8

Good players force their own involvements, great players make those involvements count. He was on the pitch for 20 minutes but he ended up solving the entire equation, so who does he knock down the pecking order next week?

Matt Simon - 8

This rating isn’t judging him on a 10 minute cameo – although he threw himself around enough - it’s judging him on 200 A-League appearances. A phenomenal milestone for one of the league’s hardest workers.