Sydney FC coach Steve Corica believes his side have a mental advantage over Perth heading into the A-League finals after the Sky Blues downed the Glory 1-0 at Kogarah on Thursday night.
Adam Le Fondre's instinctive 37th minute strike gave Sydney victory on a night when the club's fans thanked retiring captain Alex Brosque.
It was Sydney's second win over Perth this season. And, with the Glory having won the Premiers' Plate, Corica said the Sky Blues' win at Jubilee Stadium only increased his side's mental edge.
"I thought it was very good. They didn't have a shot on target so defensively we were outstanding and after we scored they were always going to put us under pressure but the defence was fantastic," he said.
"With the ball I thought we were good. Some games you have to win 1-0 and we showed great character to do that.
"Every game is important here and we needed three points to put pressure on Melbourne. They've had a very good season Perth and congratulations to them for winning the Premiers' Plate but our boys were fantastic.
"They had players out but so did we, having Zullo out and also Brosque so we'll have to wait and see what happens if we meet them again.
"It could be the match-up in the final but there's plenty of football left to be played and it's a mental game now because we have beaten them twice now.
"Our strength and conditioning coach works very hard on our fitness and the boys are responding well to that even though we've played a lot of games."
Sydney will take on Shanghai SIPG in China on Tuesday night in their Asian Champions League group match before returning home to face Newcastle in their final regular season A-League game on Saturday night.
