Rockdale City player-coach Paul Reid was relieved his side are back somewhere near their best defensively after the Suns kept a clean sheet in their 3-0 win over Hakoah Sydney City East on Sunday.
A double to Jordan Figon and a Harris Gaitatzis strike saw Rockdale earn a valuable three points at the Ilinden Sports Centre to get their stumbling 2018 NPL 1 campaign back on track.
The win kept Rockdale in touch with the top five after a poor start to the season had left them struggling in 10th place.
Figon had the Suns in front with a curling strike after five minutes before Gaitatzis bundled home an effort at the second attempt midway through the second half. Rockdale had Nicholas Petrillo sent off with 10 minutes to play but Figon’s second in injury time sealed the result.
Reid said the clean sheet was the biggest positive to take from the result.
“We spoke about it during the week about the amount of goals we’ve been conceding,” he said.
“To keep a clean sheet is always nice but I think the way we went about the game today is the most pleasing thing from this result. We got the early goal and probably should have been another couple up at the break but we talked at the interval and didn’t let it affect us.
“We played some good football and it was a comfortable win in the end against a strong side. We haven’t done that for a while and we won’t be getting carried away.”
Rockdale take on Sydney FC at Lambert Park, Leichhardt in round 11 on Saturday.
