Ange happy with 'dominant' Socceroos

Ange Postecoglou feels the Socceroos should have had 10 goals against Kyrgyzstan as his side got back to their dominant best winning 3-0 in their World Cup qualifier on Thursday night in Canberra.

“I would have preferred we won 10-0 which we should have. If you look at the number of chances we created, the way we played our football, I was very happy,” the Socceroos coach told reporters after the game. 

“We weren’t happy with how last game went [a loss in Jordan] so we needed to had to have a look at some different options and the starting line-up reflected the players who looked in the best condition to play the kind of football we wanted to play.

Socceroos players celebrate after Mile Jedinak opened the scoring from the penalty spot.

“Right from the first minute we were very dominant which we set out to do.

“The players were very disciplined in making sure we played our game for the full 90.”

Socceroos return to winning ways

The Socceroos missed a host of early chances at GIO Stadium before skipper Mile Jedinak gave them the lead from the penalty spot five minutes before the break.

Tim Cahill then scored his 42 international goal early in the second half before an own goal completed the rout.

Tim Cahill celebrates with teammates after netting Australia's second goal against Kyrgyzstan in Canberra.

The only sour note for the Aussies was injuries to Tomi Juric and Nathan Burns, who had to be substituted early in the second half after initially replacing Juric.

“I think Nathan just has a corky and Tomi I’m not really sure [the extent],” Postecoglou said.

“I’ll see how the boys pull up tonight [before deciding on replacements]. There’s the tyranny of distance for us to bring players in from Europe.

“Unless there’s a real necessity we’ll go with the ones we’ve got. We’ve got a couple on standby if we need to call them up. Matty McKay and Tommy Oar didn’t play tonight, Jimmy Troisi only got 20-odd minutes so they’ll all be fresh.”

Bradford City defender James Meredith was handed his first Socceroos cap at left-back and performed exceptionally well as cover for Jason Davidson who was battling a calf problem.

"James looked more ready. Jason had a bit of a calf injury which really restricted him in training. He only really had one session and wasn’t going at 100 percent. James came in and looked really good in training,  

James Meredith was outstanding in his debut for the Socceroos.

“It was his second camp and it was a good opportunity to throw him in there,” Postecoglou said of the Albury-born defender.

“It’s always hard your first game for Australia, regardless of the circumstances and the opposition, you’re going to be nervous.

“I thought he handled himself really well. The way we set up our fullbacks had to be really disciplined, make sure we kept our shape and were threatening going forward. 

"I thought it was a good first game for him.”