Muscat made five changes to the side which lost in Wellington on Tuesday night and the reshuffle looked set to pay off when Besart Berisha made it 1-0 on the hour, before Perth turned the match around with two goals in the final 15 minutes.

The Victory boss said midweek travel offered no justification for his side’s errors.

“Nothing to do with it. I’m too long in the tooth to start allowing people to use that as an excuse,” Muscat told Fox Sports.

“Running out the game doesn’t stop you from setting the wall up properly (on Nebojsa’s Marinkovic’s equaliser).

“There was enough freshness in there and our football was good. We created a load of chances and could have increased the lead and had it comfortably.

“But because you don’t score it doesn’t mean you throw goals away at the other end.”

Glory deal Victory title blow

Star forwards Berisha and Marco Rojas, who started the match on the bench, were among the Victory players guilty of missing opportunities.

“I thought we played really well tonight,” Muscat said.

“In general it’s a bit of disbelief that we didn’t come away with three points. We had a number of chances to increase the lead and have a comfortable lead.”