Thirty-seven months after Brendon Santalab scored the winner in the Wanderers' last cross-town victory, the veteran striker set the stands alight on Saturday night with a 26th-minute opener that was never answered at ANZ Stadium.
Santalab's was a remarkable moment of composure in an open, at times frenetic affair peppered with penalty claims - and, of course, tempers that continued after the final whistle.
One in particular will be scrutinised heavily when, at the death and with tensions at boiling point, Robbie Cornthwaite hung out a leg that hauled down Sydney skipper Alex Brosque in the box.
"That's football isn't it," Sydney coach Graham Arnold said.
"I know the players are extremely disappointed. They feel there was potentially at least two (penalties).
"But at the end of the day plenty of other coaches have been talking about it so I'll leave it to them."
Santalab played both hero and villain on a controversial night, depending which camp the 44,843-strong crowd were in.
Back in the starting line-up after last week's benching against Central Coast, the 34-year-old committed numerous reckless tackles but somehow didn't make it into referee Chris Beath's book until the 75th minute for a nasty from-behind challenge on Milos Ninkovic.
He made his presence known from kickoff with a late studs-up challenge on Danny Vukovic, before a bicycle-kick attempt landed straight in Brandon O'Neill's face.
"In all aspects of the game we more than matched Sydney," Wanderers coach Tony Popovic said.
"They're obviously a very good team ... we showed tonight we're a very good team, which we knew we were."
Late in the first half, a clumsy challenge on Ninkovic in Sydney's box prompted a penalty shout, though Ninkovic was ruled to have handballed as the Serb collapsed to the turf.
The Sky Blues' discipline dissolved after the break and it was only an out-of-nowhere clearance from Michael Zullo that stopped Nichols from scoring for the Wanderers.
