City drew 2-2 to Brisbane Roar at AAMI Park as the home side had a total of seven players out suspended including Tim Cahill and Bruno Fornaroli while Ivan Franjic and Michael Jakobsen were injured.

As a result, 16-year-old Dylan Pierias made his A-League debut, Denis Genreau played his third game and Braedyn Crowley came off the bench in his first match for City since arriving from Newcastle Jets.

Valkanis said the youngsters could hold their heads high after their performance but was scathing about the state of officiating.

City stage stunning comeback

City were trailing 2-0 at the break after Jamie Maclaren opened the scoring with a penalty before bringing up his brace on the cusp of half time. The home side grabbed two quick goals around the hour mark, including a spot kick.

But Valkanis said both penalties awarded by referee Alan Milliner were non-existent, one should have been awarded that wasn't, and Maclaren’s second goal was offside. Replays suggest it was a tight call..

“Two penalties didn’t exist, either ours or theirs, I think it’s time we start taking responsibility and accountability to improve,” Valkanis said.

“There was one penalty in the first half. That was (Anthony) Caceres being planted in the box while he was going up for a header… that was it and it went unnoticed. The second goal, I think it was offside.

“We’ve had weeks where we’ve had goals cancelled against us that were goals - like (Nico) Colazo in Adelaide, Bruno Fornaroli against Melbourne Victory. We had goals allowed against us which should be offsides and really, it’s getting really frustrating.

“And then we go in with young boys, what do you think they’re like? Frustrated. Down. Their heads are down because they’ve given everything. I thought in that first half they were fantastic, the game plan was working accordingly.

Josh Rose gives away a controversial penalty as Brandon Borello goes to ground

“They were always going to be dangerous in the second half so we have to be very positive with them and we told them not to worry, to keep control and play the game. Play our style, to the game plan and keep focused - to have the same energy they went into the game with and to finish on the final whistle with the same energy and they did that.”

Valkanis was full of praise for the way his young players conducted themselves and had faith before the game they could deliver.

The City boss also defended the club’s discipline and felt the comeback was proof of the team’s culture.

“When someone talks about discipline, they talk about yellow cards and fouls,” he said after Milliner brandished eight yellow cards in total, four going to each team..

“You need to come back with more evidence, why, how they were given, what sort of fouls they were given for because you’ll probably find a lot of them shouldn’t have been yellow cards.

“Like last week, (Osama) Malik, probably shouldn’t have been a yellow card… What’s more important is Dylan, Denis, Tommy Sorensen coming in after a long time, coming back having a good performance, let’s not take it away from the boys.”

Roar coach John Aloisi admitted he thought both penalties were wrong, but would not be drawn into criticising Milliner’s performance.

“I don’t think the first one was a penalty, I’ll be totally honest,” Aloisi said. “The second one wasn’t a penalty either, I think he just went to level it up.

“I don’t want to criticise, it’s not easy to be a referee. People are going to make mistakes, he made some mistakes tonight but I’m not here to criticise anyone.”