Kosta Barbarouses ended his A-League goal drought to give Sydney FC a 2-1 victory over his old club Wellington Phoenix at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium.
The 30-year-old, who started his career in Australia's top flight with the Phoenix in 2007, had gone more than a year without a goal from open play.
Advertisement
He struck twice on Monday for the champions, though, becoming just the sixth player to reach 70 A-League goals in the competition's history.
Barbarouses opened the scoring against the run of play with a fine finish 32 minutes in and fired home a second midway through the second half.
The visitors, who hit the crossbar twice through Ulises Davila and Louis Fenton and out-shot Sydney 20 to seven, could only manage an injury-time consolation through Davila's deflected effort.
They stayed second-bottom with four points from five matches, while Sydney climbed to third, five behind leaders Central Coast Mariners but with two games in hand.
FULL TIME. @SydneyFC prevail and gets its first win at home this season!#ALeague #SYDvWEL #SydneyIsSkyBlue #Nix pic.twitter.com/GG5M6HJ2pV
— A-League (@ALeague) February 8, 2021
