New coach Aurelio Vidmar has praised Melbourne City's 2-0 win over Sydney FC as the ideal response to their turbulent week.
But Steve Corica has been left searching for answers after a third-straight defeat piled pressure on the Sydney coach and his players.
Two days after announcing Rado Vidosic's sacking following two losses to start the A-League Men season, City claimed a confidence-boosting win at AAMI Park while condemning Sydney to a third-straight defeat.
Steven Ugarkovic lashed home a wonderful long-range strike just before half-time to give City the lead, while Jamie Maclaren tapped home a minute after the restart.
"We mentioned at the beginning of the game about we wanted to see the intent, and we certainly saw that," said Vidmar, who's been appointed till season's end.
"I thought right from the first minute, we were very aggressive, our pressing was - I wouldn't say perfect - but it was very, very good.
"There's still a lot of things that we need to work on but very happy, very pleased with the performance.
"It's probably something you would expect: to bounce after what happened last week. So now we focus on doing it again."
The Sky Blues started the season with high expectations after their Australia Cup triumph, but sit firmly bottom of the table with no goals from three games.
When asked what had gone wrong, Corica said: "Good question."
"I don't know. Obviously we had a very good cup run, it was only three weeks ago ago that we won the cup," he said.
"We're definitely missing something at the moment.
"Obviously, winning the trophy hasn't helped us in this situation. I think it's a bit of a mystery.
"But if you look at the game today, there's just individual errors. Right before halftime we concede the goal, there was no pressure on the ball and straight away as we come out, they score their second.
"So firstly you have to fix those mistakes, especially when things aren't going your way, you can't afford to give away opportunities like that."
Sydney's night grew worse when full-back Joel King, on his return from a calf injury, called for the trainers in the 60th minute and came off, but Corica was optimistic it was just cramp.
Corica dropped Fabio for young striker Patrick Wood and the 21-year-old was lively but had few real chances.
City got back to basics under Vidmar, with their full-backs staying wide and Ugarkovic controlling proceedings in midfield.
They took the lead in the 45th minute when Ugarkovic received the ball from Tolgay Arslan and skidded a wonderful long-range shot into the bottom corner.
Less than a minute into the second half, City scythed through Sydney's midfield and went end-to-end for their second.
Arslan picked out Jakolis in space and the winger selflessly squared the ball to Maclaren for his first goal of the ALM season.
Fabio headed wide in the 77th minute and over the bar four minutes later but Sydney were unable to claw back a goal.
