Sydney FC goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne grudgingly concedes it's good for the A-League that their local rivals have started the season well but he insists his own side aren't far off.
The Sky Blues find themselves below Western Sydney for the first time in a long time after losing 1-0 to the Wanderers in last Saturday's derby at Bankwest Stadium.
The game attracted more than 28,000 fans, who produced a tremendous atmosphere and witnessed the Wanderers beat Sydney for only the second time in their past 17 league clashes.
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Apart from being on the wrong side of a couple of contentious VAR calls, Sydney created almost all the chances in a match between two unbeaten sides.
The result put Wanderers outright first and dropped defending champions Sydney to third.
Asked if it was good for the league for the Wanderers to be up alongside Sydney, Redmayne sighed and said: "Yeah, it is.
"If we converted a couple of the chances I think the questions would be very different today.
"Performance is a pretty big indicator and our performance on the weekend I thought was exceptional, just barring the result, but it will come.
"We had enough chances to win three or four games.
"Once those things do click in the front third, then we're going to be extremely hard to beat."
Redmayne said it was a little disappointing Sydney hadn't kept a clean sheet yet.
Sydney's next assignment is on Friday against another intra-state rival in Newcastle at Leichhardt Oval.
"They are very dynamic, a lot of pace and play a bit off the cuff, so our defensive structure has to be spot on," Redmayne said.
Redmayne is relishing being part of the Socceroos setup, making his debut at the age of 30 earlier this year against South Korea and being on the bench for their first three World Cup qualifiers.
"I'm under no illusions of where I stand in the pecking order, with a few unfortunate recent injuries to other goalkeepers but having said that I'll relish my time there and it's always a great honour," Redmayne said.
"It was kind of a long term goal but it's something that it's ticked off and now I've had to update that goal into more advanced type of things."