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The Sky Blues appeared the better side in the first half, but Victory punished them early in the second stanza through a deflected Danny Allsopp goal.

It seemed Melbourne were set to claim all three points but Sydney levelled late on through new signing Makela to earn the hosts a share of the spoils.

"It's a cliche but there is no doubt it was a game of two halves," Merrick said. "The boys lifted (in the second half).

"We were disappointed we didn't get all three points but we can't be that greedy. The game deserved to be a draw because they (Sydney) certainly had the better of the first half."

Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka had mixed emotions from the result which effectively rules his side out of finals contention.

"My feelings are mixed. I think both teams played a very good game tonight," he said.

"We did a great first half, good effort, good quality, we created chances but we didn't score the goal. The second half we started a bit shaky and Victory punished us after a good counter.

"We made a couple of substitutions and changed the system for the last ten minutes and equalised. But as I said before, my feelings are mixed."

Sky Blues skipper Terry McFlynn was happy with some parts of the performance but rued not finding the back of the net earlier.

"At times we were keeping the ball for 5, 6, 7 passes then getting shots on goal, but we didnt put them in the net," he said.

"Melbourne sat deep, tried to catch us on the counter, and they scored early in the second and we tried to get back into the game after that."

McFlynn added: "We finished the stronger, but maybe the goal came a little bit too late. If we had have scored earlier the momentum was with us to go on and hopefully win the game, but the clock beat us in the end."

Sydney's next match is away to Central Coast on Sunday, while Victory face city-rivals and fellow finals contenders Heart on Saturday. 

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