Melbourne City coach Aurelio Vidmar says their A-League Men victory over Adelaide United was the win they simply had to pull off.
On the back of consecutive defeats, Vidmar labelled his side's home win at AAMI Park as "gritty" after they had to grind it out following the stunning fifth-minute strike from distance by Terry Antonis.
City were dominant right from the outset and were rewarded with the early goal before Adelaide clawed their way back into the contest and almost equalised on the half-hour but Jamie Young brilliantly saved a close-range header from Hiroshi Ibusuki.
United had a handful of chances in the second half as they pushed for an equaliser, while Vidmar admitted his side should have put the game to bed earlier.
The former Adelaide United captain and coach said City still have some work to do and require a bit more polish.
"We hadn't shown, if you want to call it grit, for quite a while actually to be honest, so sometimes you need a win like that," Vidmar said.
"Obviously, it helps with confidence, it helps that we can win another way instead of just being 'we're Melbourne City, an expansive football-playing team', which we want to be but we're not quite there at the moment.
"There's still a fair bit of work in progress for us, but you've got to find a way to win sometimes and that's a pretty good Adelaide team.
"That's exactly what we did. We just found a way to win and probably could have had a second or even a third goal if we were a little bit smarter in the front third."
The win lifted City back into the top six, equal on 21 points with Western Sydney Wanderers who are third, fourth-placed Central Coast Mariners, and Macarthur FC, who sit sixth.
Vidmar lamented two missed opportunities in recent weeks, losing to both the Wanderers and Mariners, back-to-back.
"We did fluff it in the last couple of weeks against the teams that were on level points with us," he said.
"If you go back to the Western Sydney game, we could've gone second or third. And then obviously last week, conceding in the last minutes was pretty disappointing.
"The way the league is this season, if you're off just one or two per cent you're going to get punished and down to tenth or eleventh. Everyone is still fighting for a position in the six, if not probably top two or three."
Sydney FC and the Reds are just outside the six on 18 points, while Brisbane Roar are a further point adrift in ninth and Newcastle Jets occupy 10th, five points behind City.
