Sydney coach Ufuk Talay has heaped praise on talisman Joe Lolley after his hat-trick launched Sydney FC to a 3-0 A-League Men win and heaped more misery on Perth Glory.
Lolley broke through the stalemate at Allianz Stadium in the 52nd minute before launching himself to the top of the league's golden-boot standings with his 68th-minute penalty conversion on Wednesday.
With a brace not enough, Lolley completed his hat-trick in the 88th minute after picking up the crumbs of Patryk Klimala's unsuccessful goal attempt.
Scoring first with a volley thanks to an assist from Anthony Caceres, the Englishman found his second when Glory defender Andriano Lebib handballed inside the box in the 67th minute.
Lebib's arms made contact with the ball after diving to stop Klimala from collecting Lolley's pass in the 67th minute.
Lolley would have notched an assist for Klimala's 80th-minute strike but his Polish teammate was ruled offside.
He now leads the league with eight goals, ahead of Wellington's Kosta Barbarouses and Western Sydney's Nicolas Milanovic with six.
In Sydney's last two matches, the 32-year-old scored a brace to help secure a 3-0 win over Melbourne Victory before kicking a crucial goal in their 2-2 draw with Newcastle.
Asked where he thought Lolley stood among the club's greatest players, Sydney coach and foundation player Ufuk Talay said: "Close to me.
"No, Joe is a special visa player that's come across.
"He's quite entertaining for our league, very influential with what he does with the ball and also the work rate that he does have off the ball.
"Joe stood out because he scored three goals but I thought he was very positive with the ball.
"For the full 90 minutes, from the first whistle to the end, I think we dominated the whole game."
Lolley's efforts helped the Sky Blues leapfrog bitter-rivals Western Sydney to seventh on the ladder and take their undefeated streak to four matches.
On 17 points, they are one point off sixth-placed Western United.
Perth have now lost three straight games and sit 12th on the table with just one win.
Their rebuild campaign under David Zdrilic won't get any easier as they face league-leaders Auckland FC at home in their next fixture.
"Look, obviously the start (to the season) has put us way behind," Zdrilic said.
"It's a mountain to climb but we're not going in saying, 'Oh, we're just going to think about next season'.
"We want to go into every game with a winning mindset."
Zdrilic will at least find relief in captain Adam Taggart avoiding a serious injury after being unexpectedly substituted out of the match at half-time.
Instead, Zdrilic said Taggart was managed out of the match with general soreness.
Sydney should have taken the lead before half-time when Joel King sent a curling pass towards goal and lured goalkeeper Oliver Sail off his line.
Sail attempted to punch the ball clear a minute into added time but it instead came off the back of his gloves and landed at the feet of Caceres.
Caceres toe-poked the ball but luckily for Sail, Glory teammate Lebib was quick on his feet to deny the hosts on the line.
The visitors had only two shots at goal in the first half but almost drew first blood.
Sydney keeper Harrison Devenish-Meares had fumbled Josh Risdon's goal attempt at first touch and had to scramble to keep Taggart from pouncing in the 16th minute.
