Coach Dwight Yorke hopes last week's controversial A-League Men loss to Sydney FC has lit a fire in the belly of his Macarthur Bulls, who meet Wellington on Sunday.
The Bulls were on the wrong end of two contentious refereeing decisions against the Sky Blues last week.
Sydney received a penalty that led to their opening goal, before a VAR review upgraded Jonathan Aspropotamitis' yellow card to a red and forced Macarthur to play more than half the game a man down.
The 3-2 loss was the first of Yorke's young managerial career and leaves the Bulls without important defender Aspropotamitis, who has been suspended for his challenge on Patrick Wood.
But Yorke has wasted little time stewing on those calls and in the lead-up to the Bulls' trans-Tasman trip, said there were positives to glean from the heartbreaking defeat.
"In football, something like that was always likely to happen," Yorke told AAP.
"It's not always going to be great but then I get to see my players in a different light too, so that's encouraging.
"You're looking for a reaction from your team. As a manager who's new, I get to see something that I didn't see before.
"We hadn't lost a game before and to see the reaction of the players and look them in the eye after the game and see that disappointment tells me a lot about my players and I quite like that, even though the result isn't what we expected."
Barbadian international Mario Williams is a chance to make his ALM debut in place of Aspropotamitis but the Bulls are unlikely to have captain Ulises Davila back from a hamstring injury until December, when the competition returns from hiatus post-World Cup.
"We've got to look at the bigger picture," Yorke said.
"The bigger picture is at the end of the season, we want to be in a position to be competing for those top spots.
"Davila will be a massive player for us, taking us forward if we are to compete in those positions, so we want to take precautions."
Looking ahead to the Phoenix clash, Yorke remained confident in his side's attacking set-up without Davila.
"We know it's going to be tough there but it's a game that we feel that we might be able to get something from," Yorke said.
"We've got to be aware of Wellington's dangers and eradicate them.
"Once we do that and we match them, we've got enough talent in our team to hurt them."
