It wasn't exactly pretty but the Socceroos have finally returned to winning ways with a nervy 3-2 win over Saudi Arabia in London.
Big guns Tim Cahill and Mile Jedinak got Australia off to a flier in front of just 3677 fans at Craven Cottage on Monday night, with both scoring inside the first six minutes.
But the Socceroos lost their cool in the second half, with Saudi Arabia pulling back to within a goal, then doing so again after young defender Bailey Wright scored on his Socceroos debut.
Australia held on to snap a five-game losing streak and notch a first win since beating Costa Rica 1-0 in Postecoglou's first game in charge in November last year.
But the performance against the world No.83 side failed to confirm the progress made in recent outings against some of the world's best teams.
"I was pretty happy with the first half, we controlled the game really well for the most part," Postecoglou said.
"The second half, it just became a really scrappy, open affair and we just lost our composure a little bit.
"In the end we had to fight hard for something that should have been a bit easier."
Turning attention to Asian opposition ahead of January's Asian Cup, the coach made four changes from the side that lost 2-0 to Belgium last week with Wright, Luongo, Josh Brillante and Mitch Langerak given starts.
After a scrappy beginning, Australia were up 2-0 in the blink of an eye.
Cahill struck first with his 35th Socceroos goal, starting a lovely team move from half way and finishing it from close range after Luongo had a shot blocked.
Australia suffered a blow when centre back Alex Wilkinson was forced off and replaced by Trent Sainsbury after just five minutes as he tweaked a glute muscle injury suffered in the warm-up.
But Australia doubled their advantage seconds later when an unmarked Jedinak steered a header into the net from Josh Brillante's free kick.
The Saudis grew into the game and by the second half looked the more dangerous side as Australia's inexperienced backline was badly stretched.
With Jedinak and Cahill having been subbed off, the gulf side earned a penalty in the 70th minute when Langerak clipped Mukhtar Fallatah in the box, with Hassan Muath slotting the ensuing spot kick.
Against the run of play, Australia looked to put the result beyond doubt when Wright headed in from a 77th minute corner.
But the slick Saudis continued to make inroads in attack and Taiseer Aljassam got their second in the 84th minute to ensure a tense finale.
Youngsters Brad Smith and Tomi Juric saw more game time off the bench, while young playmaker Luongo was particularly impressive in the first half.
"I said leading into those two games we wanted to widen the (talent) pool a little bit because we still feel we're pretty shallow in areas," Postecoglou said.
"Guys like Mass Luongo, Chris Herd, Trent Sainsbury and Josh Brillante, they've all put cases forward to be part of it now.
"From that perspective, I'm happy with the overall objective but we've still got a lot of work to do and I know exactly where we're at and what we need to do going forward."
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