The reigning Premiers lost the encounter 2-1 to Newcastle Jets but were at the wrong end of some controversial decisions in the opening exchanges.

Jets midfielder Ruben Zadkovich was lucky to stay on the park following a lunging tackle while a goal scoring opportunity was wrongly flagged offside.

But the most contentious moment was the penalty awarded to Jets’ marquee Emile Heskey who collided with Michael McGlinchey in the box. Ryan Griffiths put the spot kick away to give the home side aa 1-0 advantage within four minutes.

Arnold praised his team in the wake of the derby defeat:  “I think it was a fantastic performance by the boys – good derby, a lot of action and I was very happy with our performance overall.

“I just thought overall it was a pretty average performance from the ref. I’ll probably get called a whinger as normal but the three incidents that happened in the first five minutes I thought turned the match.”

Arnold described the penalty as soft: “Mikey McGlinchey weighs 67 kilos and Emile Heskey weighs 100 – so that says enough. Mikey may be doing some extra weights.

“Look those things happen. Yeah it’s disappointing but penalties come and go and you get good decisions, bad decisions throughout the year.

“We’re disappointed now but as I said to the players I judge the team on their performance and the performance was fantastic.

“I thought there was only one football team out there today trying to play football and that was us – our combinations, our movement was first class.

“So if we continue to play like that, and we will do, then I can’t see why we won’t be successful again this year.”

The Mariners copped a second goal from Heskey in the second-half off the back of a brilliant run by James Virgili. A hopeful equaliser by Patrick Zwaanswijk in the dying moments of the game was correctly ruled offside.

But Arnold remained philosophical: “The second goal was disappointing, it was a bit soft. A great run by the kid Virgili, fantastic action and good run by him. It was a bit soft but look overall it was, as I said, about the performance away from home.

“We don’t have an easy start to the season, we’ve only got two home games in the first seven games. So as long as we pick up some points along the way because we’ve got a lot of home games at the end of the season and we’re very strong at home.”

Despite Tomas Rogic being subbed off Arnold said there were no casualties from the fiery clash except his blood pressure which had “gone through the roof”.