Arnold unfazed over Holosko horror show

Filip Holosko's underwhelming performance against Newcastle raised eyebrows, but Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold insists his marquee man was "excellent all night".

Holosko, the Slovak international brought in this season to take up on the wing where prolific Austrian goalscorer Marc Janko left off at No.9, missed four first-half sitters on Friday night.

The 31-year-old did well to get himself into scoring positions time and again at Allianz Stadium, but could not find the back of the net.

His clear lack of confidence in execution only compounded the Sky Blues' nervousness in the front third that has held back their campaign and, up until Friday, left them three matches without a win.

It was a relief when reliable skipper Alex Brosque rescued the night after the break and put an end to his side's 307-minute goal drought to take a 1-0 win.

Holosko, who entered the sheds at halftime apologising profusely to his teammates and coach, was not feeling good afterwards and politely declined to re-live the experience.

But Arnold made a point of praising the player, whose pedigree includes seven years with Turkish giants Besiktas.

"I thought he was excellent all night," Arnold said of Holosko, who has two goals from 13 shots over eight games.

"The second half he was very good. Anyone else could have thrown the towel in.

"The most important thing is he keeps getting in those goal-scoring positions, it will come," Arnold said.

The victory lifts Sydney to third and on equal 16 points with leaders Melbourne Victory, though the reigning champions are still to play.

Arnold, who refused to attend last week's post-match press conference in fury over perceived unfair officiating against Wellington, was far more jovial, pleased his team had corrected the past week's "ill-discipline" that was testing his patience.

He hailed youngster Andrew Hoole as "sharp" on starting debut and explained he scratched stand-out defensive midfielder Brandon O'Neill in favour of an attacking bench for the "must-win game".

Overall Arnold was content with this season's progress, which now reads one loss - to Victory - and six clean sheets, including the past three in succession.

"I always try to divide the competition into nine, and if you're roughly around two points a game you're close to winning the league," he said.

"We're close to that.

"It's no secret that I worked a lot on defence in the off-season ... we lost a lot of goals in (Marc) Janko and Bernie (Ibini).

"It's about building from the back, being hard to beat, but getting better and better."

Brosque is being checked out for an apparent hamstring injury sustained just before fulltime.