Farina won't ease up on Sky Blues

If the Sydney FC players thought Sunday's 2-1 win against Wellington Phoenix will end the twice-a-day training sessions they will be disappointed.

If the Sydney FC players thought Sunday's 2-1 win against Wellington Phoenix will end the twice-a-day training sessions they will be disappointed.

New coach Frank Farina has quickly made his mark at the Sky Blues with the new training regime and the hard work done in the lead-up to their trip to Wellington certainly paid dividends as they notched their first win in the New Zealand capital since 2008 to end a five-game winless streak.

But despite that Farina revealed post-match that his players would be doing a double shift again on Wednesday.

"It's not a matter of flogging them. It's not a punishment," Farina said.

"It's more so because I'm new in the job. I've only been there eight or nine days. The double sessions are more about getting them to buy into the way I want to play.

"Some people think it's a punishment or I'm trying to do something. It's really just working on structure and shape and how we want to play."

There was no lack of effort or commitment from Sydney on Sunday. They harried and chased and tackled and were rewarded with goals from Sebastian Ryall and Rhyan Grant either side of the break.

The Sky Blues were reduced to 10 men for the final five minutes when Terry McFlynn was sent off for a second bookable offence.

But the Phoenix could only manage a consolation penalty from Jeremy Brockie after Adam Griffiths brought down Manny Muscat in the box.

"This week we worked hard and the intensity at training was very good," Farina said.

"I'm a firm believer if that's the case in training you carry that into a game and we did that today.

"I was pretty pleased, apart from that last three or four minutes."

Jason Culina made his first start following a lengthy injury lay-off and controlled things well in the midfield for the 60 minutes he was on the pitch. His cross set up Ryall's header but his leadership skills were just as important.

"He's done it tough," said Farina. "I don't think people realise the full extent of the operations Jason had. For him to come back and perform the way he did today... It was the Jason of old.

"He'll just get better. Sixty minutes was most probably his maximum today, especially at the intensity we want to play.

"Being in the middle of the park is not the easiest of occupations. He did very well. I'm very pleased."

Despite the Phoenix's poor performance Farina still expects them to feature in the playoffs next year.

"(Wellington) is a very difficult place to come and they are a good side," he said. "They'll be there or thereabouts at the end of the season. These three points for us are huge."