But after finally scoring his third international goal in his 30th cap, the 25-year-old winger is optimistic the floodgates are about to open.

Leckie’s winner against Greece on Saturday night was worth the wait – a pivot at the top of the box and a bullet in the last second of play to decide the friendly 1-0.

“It’s been a while,” he said.

The last time Leckie netted for Australia was in last September’s 5-0 World Cup qualifying rout of Bangladesh.

Before that was in 2013 against Canada.

It’s not something that appears to overly bother Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou, who recently described the FC Ingolstadt flyer as an integral part of his set-up.

But the man recently confirmed as the fastest in the German Bundesliga hopes his latest effort will keep any external critics quiet – and unlock the key to more goals.

“Obviously it’s not good to hear (criticism), but I know I need to score more goals,” Leckie said.

“Hopefully it will keep people quiet for a bit, but I’m hoping it doesn’t take that long to score again.

“I’ll work hard to continue playing well, and if I can score more I’m happy and everyone else is too.”

Leckie was glad his run off the bench was only half an hour, revealing he wouldn’t have lasted much longer than that having not trained much since the end of the Bundesliga season.

But he’d relish a start in tomorrow night’s second friendly in his home city of Melbourne, where he’s only played once for the Socceroos in last year’s Asian Cup tie against Kuwait.

“Obviously I’d like to start because it’s Melbourne and I’d like to get some good minutes in,” Leckie said.

“I’m pretty sure we’ll get a good crowd, there’s a lot of people who have a Greek background here so hopefully there’s a good crowd and a good atmosphere.”

-AAP