Western Sydney Wanderers coach Tony Popovic received the type of challenge he wanted for his A-League side in Wednesday night's pre-season friendly against a gallant Canberra FC.
The 1-0 scoreline to the Wanderers is irrelevant at this early stage of their preparation, but it gave Popovic the chance to expose several promising youngsters while being without seven members of his first-team squad.
A 22nd minute strike from 18-year-old Young Socceroos representative Jaushua Sotirio was enough for the Wanderers to scrape past the Canberra National Premier League club in front of an impressive crowd of 1600 at Deakin Stadium.
The only disturbance off the field was the lighting of a handful of flares in the Wanderers' supporters section with 10 minutes to go in the game.
Police were on the scene but no arrests were made.
"It's a good hit out for us,'' Popovic said.
''We're still very early in our preparation and the boys are working extremely hard at training. A lot of heavy legs but that's all part of it. We blooded a lot of youngsters tonight and left a lot of players at home for a rest.
"Overall, it was a good exercise, there were no injuries from the game, so we go home happy.''
Brazilian import Vitor Saba remained in Sydney with the flu, while captain, and Canberra product, Nikolai Topor-Stanley played the opening 45 minutes before being substituted in his second game back from a knee injury sustained in last season's grand final loss to the Brisbane Roar.
The Wanderers are building towards their two-legged Champions League tie with Chinese powerhouse Guangzhou Evergrande on August 20 and 27.
"It will be a tough task for us to play them in pre-season but the boys are doing well and we've got another three weeks to go,'' Popovic said.
"We'll be a lot better by then.''
Canberra FC more than held its own and had a couple of fantastic chances to equalise in the second half.
Striker Phillipe Bernabo-Madrid enjoyed the opportunity to make the step up against A-League opposition, especially when he was marked by Topor-Stanley.
"He's a strong boy – I told the boys if I beat him for a header they've got to buy me dinner tonight because he's the strongest person,'' Bernabo-Madrid laughed.
"It's just a big test.
"It's a confidence boost for sure because I thought we did really well.''
Along with their regular squad, the Wanderers gave game time to Capital Football NTC players Tom Milicevic and Ross Costanzo.
Sotirio made the most of a half chance inside the box, showing superb skills to flick the ball over a Canberra FC defender and put his finish into the bottom left corner of the net.
The Wanderers will continue their pre-season campaign next Tuesday against Apia Leichhardt at Leichhardt Oval.
WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS 1 (Jaushua Sotirio 22') bt CANBERRA FC 0 at Deakin Stadium on Wednesday night.
