The Melbourne Victory coach said: "I would say we felt as though we should have taken all three points, particularly with the chances we had in the first half. And even in the second half we created chances.

"But to come here and say we're really disappointed at not taking all three points speaks volumes for how we played.

"I felt we domainated at the back, really good defensive play, had a lot of possession in the middle and created chances.

"We probably had four gilt-edged chances and didn't put them away."

Sydney FC went closest of all to scoring when Shannon Cole rattled an upright but Michael Theoklitos was largely untroubled.

Merrick said: "They hit the post from a free-kick but you weigh it up and overwhelmingly we had the better chances.

"We took the pressure off them in the second half. I felt we should have kept our foot on the accelerator. The main cause of the problem was Steve Corica but we nullified him more in the second half and should have made more use of the possession we had.

"I'm very happy with the boys. We played good football. It's a clean sheet, four games in a row."