Rado Vidosic will take charge of his first game as Melbourne City's permanent A-League Men's boss when they trek across the country to face Perth on Saturday night.
An Australian football statesman having coached in ALM, Women's and Youth league and been a technical director, Vidosic penned a deal earlier this week to fill the role vacated by Patrick Kisnorbo until 2025.
He's got the talented City squad firing, none more so than in a 6-1 demolition of Macarthur last weekend to go seven points clear on top of the table.
"I'm enjoying every minute I'm working and spending time with the players ... (it) was a no-brainer, I didn't even speak to my wife about it," Vidosic told reporters.
"When I got the interim job, the club told me if it was going well and the players were showing they're appreciating your ideas, you can continue for longer.
"Everyone's showing there's a trust, believing in what we're doing, and on the weekend we got rewarded for all the hard work."
They head to Macedonia Park as a warm favourite against the Glory, but will need to be wary of the hosts and their six-game unbeaten run that's lifted them to seventh on the table and back in the hunt for finals.
City have been ruthless in their eight games against bottom-half opponents this season with seven wins for a 22-3 combined scoreline, but Vidosic warned there were more levels to reach from their 6-1 thrashing last time out.
"Against Western Sydney (1-1 draw) we played better, against Adelaide (3-3 draw) we played better, what was missing ... was just goals, our performances ... and phases of play were better," he said.
"We can play better ... there are still areas of our gameplan we can do better.
"If we can control transition moments we can improve, in both of those games we copped goals from giving the ball away ... we didn't deal with the transition moments."
Perth missed a golden opportunity to jump inside the top six in their last outing, throwing away two points by conceding an 88th-minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw against Newcastle.
