"Timmy is special of course, that's what we all know. Sometimes he's invisible in the field. But it was a great goal again, it was not an easy ball of course. I saw it on the replay," said Verbeek.

"He is so alert on balls like that. I think a lot of players were not expecting that ball any more. He is always there at the right moment. It is not the first time in his career."

But Verbeek also singled out Scott Chipperfield for praise for setting up the winner. The veteran left back surged forward down the wing, beat his opponent and delivered a low cross which found its way to Cahill.

"We should not forget the action of Chippers on the left-hand side. It's nice to have a striker who can score goals, but you also need players who bring the strikers into scoring positions," he said.

Verbeek said that once Australia had broken down the Omani defence, which had provided stubborn resistance for the better part of 73 minutes, the game was as good as over.

"After the first goal, the game was finished. We were completely in control the moment the coach on the bench changed Luke Wilkshire to the midfield, and Brett Emerton to the right side. We were more in control in the second half." he said.

"I think we had more than enough chances to score more than one goal. Especially in the first 15 minutes of the first half. The first 15 minutes of the second half, we had more than enough chances to finish it off. They had one very big chance also, of course."

The coach said it was a case of job done, bag the points and look to the next challenge.

Verbeek added: "We did what we had to do. We scored one goal more than the opponent. We have three points, we are back in the race."