The Dubbo product earned his first start for the sky blues in Sunday’s at-home clash against Adelaide and helped them to bounce back from the previous round’s 3-1 loss to Perth Glory.

Tratt scored what proved to be the winning goal in the 48^th minute, in a man-of-the-match performance.

It’s his second goal in just one month since joining his former youth club on an injury replacement contract – and his second with his head.

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Speaking in a video posted to the club’s social media during Monday’s recovery work, Tratt admitted being closer to family at the sky blues – compared to his season at the Wellington Phoenix – was a huge attraction.

Watch the full interview with Jacob Tratt below

Tratt resides in Sydney with his girlfriend and two of his sisters, while parents John and Lisa travel from Dubbo as often as they can manage.

“The biggest thing is just wanting to make my family proud, so I think Mum and Dad are very happy,” he said.

“It’s awesome … [the club] is only 20 minutes from my house so it’s cruise-y but I couldn’t be happier to play there, not only because it’s close but it’s close for my family as well.

“Obviously when they come down it’s easier to come to the games and enjoy it so, yeah, very happy.”

Tratt has scored twice from set-pieces in his five appearances for Sydney FC, playing an average of 67 minutes for each goal scored.

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He has a 76 per cent success rate in duels, and an 80 per cent success rate in aerial contests.

The 190-centimetre central defender admitted heading the ball came “naturally”.

“I think I’ve worked on it, to be fair, but I would say honestly 90 percent of my goals are from headers,” Tratt said.

“Obviously my goal is to be a centre-back but I got the opportunity to play as a right back and just I try to embrace it as much as I could and I was lucky enough to get man of the match.

“I’m pretty sore, to be fair, from the full 90, but very, very happy.”

Tratt and his Sydney FC teammates now turn their attention to another at-home clash on Saturday, this time against the seventh-placed Newcastle Jets.

Then they hit the road, with Tratt to face his former Wellington Phoenix teammates for the first time since being overlooked for a contract there last year.

They’ll head across the ditch to play in Wellington on January 23, before heading to Melbourne to face the Victory just three days later.

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“A big few weeks coming up so just got to make sure I look after myself properly and keep myself physically and mentally prepared for each match coming up.”

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