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Tussle ... Alessandro Del Piero tackles Nicholas Kalmar at Allianz Stadium. Source: By Joosep Martinson / AAP
On the brink of yet another defeat, Sydney FC scored two goals in the final 10 minutes to snatch a dramatic 2-1 A-League win over Melbourne Heart at Allianz Stadium on Sunday.
Richard Garcia put the visitors in front midway through the first half with veteran Brett Emerton levelling the scores in the 85th minute and Rhyan Grant netting the winner in the 93rd.
Coach Frank Farina said it was essential the Sky Blues followed up with another victory.
"I said that these next two home games we have to take maximum points,'' he said. "The first part of the jigsaw is in so if we can beat Wellington next week then we can maybe talk about a possible push (for the finals).''
Sydney beat the table-topping Central Coast in their last home clash and came back from being behind twice to steal a point in their 2-2 draw against Perth last week.
And while he admits they played "ugly'' football on Sunday, Farina feels his messages might just be getting through to his players.
"I've tried to drum into these players 'you've got to play for 90 minutes and if you do that you'll always have a chance','' he said.
"It's a slow process but I think they're starting to see that against Perth, against the Central Coast and again here now if they're prepared to really work hard and keep going even when you're down the rewards can come.
"If they buy into that mentality, you've got a formidable side on your hands.
"We ground out a result again and it was purely down to the players not dropping their heads and giving up.''
Re-live the action from Sydney's dramatic win over Melbourne Heart with our A-League Match Centre, featuring video highlights and all the important stats.
The Sky Blues were outplayed for most of the match but managed to come from behind to snatch the three points and climb off the bottom of the ladder - where they have sat for eight of the competition's 15 weeks.
Sydney are now in ninth place but equal on points with eight-placed Brisbane while the Heart remain in seventh.
It took less than two minutes for the Heart to penetrate the fragile Sydney defence with Nicholas Kalmar forcing a save from gloveman Vedran Janjetovic.
Garcia broke the deadlock in the 24th minute thanks to some superb lead-up work from Kalmar, the Heart midfielder beating Grant in the air to head home.
Farina took Ali Abbas off in the 39th minute to bring Blake Powell on.
The usually placid Iraqi International appeared furious over the decision and exchanged some heated words with Alessandro Del Piero, with many suspecting he felt the Italian had called on Farina to make the change.
Sebastian Ryall had the 13,125-strong crowd on their feet when it looked like he'd levelled but the desperate Sky Blues were denied by a correct offside ruling.
The hosts had their best chance to equalise when speedy Panamanian Yairo Yau sent a perfect pass in the box for the waiting Emerton with 20 minutes to go.
Emerton, one-on-one with the Heart 'keeper Andrew Redmayne, had the perfect chance to bring the hosts level, but in what will go down as one of the misses of the season, he sent his shot way over the crossbar.
Emerton made up for the miss when he got on the end of a great Terry McFlynn pass to slot home with his right foot.
The goal seemed to spark the Sky Blues into action with Del Piero setting up Grant with a superb pass. He made no mistake, slotting home the winning header in the final 90 seconds of the match.
