Macarthur have defeated 10-man Sydney FC in a thrilling 2-1 A-League Men victory after Marin Jakolis scored in added time.
Substitute Patrick Wood looked certain to have salvaged a point for the Sky Blues after equalising in the 88th minute but a late Jakolis goal nabbed all three for the visitors at Allianz Stadium on Sunday.
Enjoying the numerical advantage after new Socceroo Hayden Matthews was given his marching orders before the break, substitute Ariath Piol drew first blood for the Bulls with an astounding bicycle kick in the 73rd minute.
Matthews had been shown the yellow card twice for fouls on Jakolis, forcing Sydney to play with 10-man for the second time in four matches.
"It's not a discipline issue," Sky Blues coach Ufuk Taly said.
"It's just a reaction that he's had, Hayden, where he feels that he's going to get beat and sticks his arm out.
"We press high. We're not going to move away from what we believe is the best way of playing the game."
Former Sky Blues captain Luke Brattan starred for the Bulls in the midfield and was at the source for both goals.
Brattan had joined Macarthur in the off-season after Sydney reneged on the offer of a contract extension that forced him to hunt for a new club.
"In the off-season, we identified that we needed a leader," Bulls coach Mile Sterjovski said.
"Not only a good person, we needed somebody who commands things, who sets the standards. He's been all of that for us."
Macarthur almost got off to a horror start when goalkeeper Filip Kurto slipped attempting to save, allowing Sydney's Patryk Klimala to find the back of the net easily in the fifth minute.
Luckily for the Bulls, the Polish striker was offside.
Piol then joined the fray after forward Jake Hollman went down after just 25 minutes with an oblique injury following a collision with Matthews.
Macarthur are already without winger Jed Drew, who was a late withdrawal with a calf injury.
"I just had a gut feeling of how I wanted to go about it," Sterjovski said.
"When Jake suffered the injury, Ari just came into my mind.
"I know what he's capable of doing and I thought it would have suited him to come on.Â
"He's always got a special goal in him."
The early scare was enough to wake up the visitors, who should've entered halftime with a goal were it not for Jakolis's wastefulness up front.
Tempers threatened to boil over in the 56th minute when Sydney's Anas Ouahim, having fouled Valere Germain, put his hand on the back of the Macarthur skipper's head to exchange words.
Germain responded with the same act, before the Bulls' Kealey Adamson intervened by hugging Ouahim out of the squabble.
Adamson then broke away from the pack in the 69th minute to deliver a quality pass for Germain, who sent the ball straight to goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne.
The ball bounced off Redmayne back to Germain, but Wood diffused the threat with a desperate kick out of play.
With momentum on Macarthur's side, Brattan threaded the ball nicely for Ivan Vujica, who set up Piol's goal-of-the-year contender in the 73rd minute.
Wood levelled the scores but Jakolis finally found reward on the scoreboard seven minutes into added time.
