Despite their coach not making the fly-in, fly-out trip, Macarthur FC proved too good for Perth Glory, defeating the new locals 1-0 in the A-League Men's.
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Bulls leader Ante Milicic felt under the weather and didn't make the short trip, giving assistant coach Ivan Jolic a chance at his first A-League victory in his second chance.
As Glory made four changes for the match and Macarthur one, it was the latter who made the first dent on the scoreboard despite plenty of Perth pressure.
Glory pair Nick Fitzgerald and Mitch Oxburrow created early chances for the adopted home side, with Oxburrow's sparking an audible crowd groan, but Macarthur found the back of the net in the ninth minute.
Mexican Ulises Davila took advantage of an Aaron Calver mishap to calmly score, snapping Macarthur's streak of conceding first.
Experienced Glory goalkeeper Liam Reddy saved a major chance from Apostolos Giannou at going up 2-0 minutes later, while Craig Noone's cross to Davila also looked dangerous.
With the crowd in their corner, Glory sought about going against the grain and equalising, with a long Jack Clisby pass finding Bruno Fornaroli, who almost added to his two Sunday goals and score for the first time against Macarthur.
The Bulls created consecutive corners in the 27th minute, the first punched away and the second cleared forward towards Macarthur's defence.
Medical attention was required minutes later for Bulls right back Jake McGing, with his 107th A-League game coming to a premature end due to a hamstring injury.
Liam Rose took his position, despite not being a traditional right back, and was tested straight away as Fornaroli created another chance with a header that was accounted for by Filip Kurto.
Macarthur created a late chance through an open Noone but the score stayed at 1-0 heading into the break, with only one minute of injury time added.
Former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge graced the UTAS Stadium deck after half-time, replacing Fitzgerald as Brandon O'Neill came on for Antonee Burke-Gilroy.
Both were immediately in the action, on contrasting sides of a yellow card, with Sturridge illegally tackled by Aleksandar Susnjar and O'Neill earning himself a card in his opening minutes.
Sturridge had a major chance to open his A-League scoring account, missing a one-on-one Kurto after a precision pass from Fornaroli.
The teams traded corners to no reward before disaster struck for Sturridge, clutching his groin and pulling up sore before making his way to the changerooms.
Fornaroli produced another chance, this time from a set play, but Kurto stopped the chance again, continuing his form.
A second yellow to Susnjar saw the Bulls go down a man for the last 15 minutes but they held off the surging Glory despite a 90th minute strike that hit the goalpost and an overturned call for a handball, which would've seen a penalty.