While happy with aspects of his team's performance the Mariners coach was disappointed with the quality of the delivery and finishing.

The Mariners dominated much of the match and created numerous chances, but had to settle for a share of the points in front of 10,521 fans.

"For us to be successful we need to be more ruthless, I said that many times last season," Arnold said. "We had enough chances to win five games tonight.

"Defensively it was a great performance, we restricted them to pretty much nothing. But too many times our final ball was crap."

"I always try to be positive, on any other night it could have been a very different scoreline. We're still going OK. When you don't create any chances that is when you worry."

Melbourne, who had a host of changes due to international duty and suspension, were pleased to leave the coast with a point.

"I'm happy considering we're missing five regulars," Victory coach Mehmet Durakovic said.

"The boys that came in did a great job; we dug in deep and I thought we played really well. We deserved a draw."

Arnold said he wanted to have another close look at two incidents in the first half when the Mariners came so close to opening the scoring in the 29th minute.

Rodrigo Vargas firstly cleared a fumbled shot off the line before Daniel McBreen headed the rebound on to the underside of the crossbar. The ball bounced and several Mariners thought it was over the line.

Mariners skipper Alex Wilkinson said of the incident: "It was very close but I was too far away to get a really good look at it."