Adelaide United coach Carl Veart has already turned his attention to Wednesday night's crucial clash with Perth Glory in Perth.
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The Reds' scrappy 1-0 win over Brisbane Roar at Coopers Stadium on Sunday moved them back into fourth on equal points with third-ranked Sydney FC and just ahead of fifth-placed Macarthur FC.
The match against the Glory will be Adelaide's third of five fixtures in 16 days and Veart hinted he would again have to rotate the line-up after making four changes on Sunday to the side that lost 4-1 to Melbourne City.
Veart said he would need to find the right balance for the Glory fixture with maximum points vital as Adelaide look to cement its finals berth.
"We will have to do some squad rotation," he said.
"But at the end of the day we've got three points up (for grabs) on Wednesday night against Perth and we have to play our best and strongest team.
"We can't afford to not take three points."
United and Brisbane both looked sloppy at times on Sunday with fatigue a factor as the Roar also entered the clash during a heavy schedule.
Veart acknowledged the Reds sub-par performance but praised his players for managing to grind out a win.
Craig Goodwin scored the only goal of the game in the first half while keeper James Delianov saved a spot kick from Joey Champness not long after to deny the visitors an equaliser.
"It wasn't our best night tonight," Veart said.
"We were sloppy in a lot of our basics, but we managed to find a way to win.
"The boys have got to take the credit for that."
Coach Warren Moon said while Brisbane's bumper schedule was not an excuse, he did have to also factor in rest for some players with the Roar set to notch up eight games for the month of May.
Regular starters James O'Shea and Dylan Wenzel-Halls were second-half substitutes, as were Golgol Mebrathu and Riku Danzaki.
The rotation handed a senior debut to Cyrus Dehmie and first start for Alex Parsons.
"It's no excuse, it just is what it is," Moon said.
"Adelaide came back after Thursday night, we had a Wednesday night game and then had to travel.
"I don't make excuses for it, it's just what we have to deal with.
"At some point like I said we had to make changes and we had to start, we didn't have to but we chose to start young Cyrus Demi, who I thought did well for his senior debut for the club.
"Alex got his first start, so there were a lot of positive there without getting the result."
Australian Associated Press
