Victory were forced to play more than hour outnumbered and survived a spotkick before firing home the equaliser in a bruising 1-1 Melbourne Cup eve encounter at Etihad Stadium.

Wanderers' strike ace Oriol Riera opened the scoring (32') just minutes after Mitch Austin was sent packing for a second yellow.

But Victory refused to throw in the towel and when Lawrence Thomas pulled off a spectacular save to deny Riera from the penalty spot (44') the home side was re-engergised.

Thomas Deng then picked the perfect moment to score his first A-League goal, nodding home a dangerious free kick by Leroy George for the equaliser (49').

Milligan told Fox Sports post-match: "You talk about moments in games - whether it's a goal that lifts of a big tackle from a centre back and obviously a penalty save is one of the biggest lifts you can get.

"That kept us in the game and we knew we had to respond for him (Thomas)putting his body on the line."

Milligan, sitting on a yellow, was perhaps lucky not to earn an early shower himself after throwing in a couple of rash challenges including a lunging tackle on Jumpei Kusukami.

And while Kevin Muscat's men are still in search of their first win of the season, there's no doubt the performance against Wanderers will raise spirits in the Victory camp.

"Apart from the pen we didn't really give them too many clear chances," Milligan said.

"We've had a bit of a slow start to the season but we've worked reall hard this week on a few things and I think the first 30 odd minutes we looked more like ourselves again.

"That grit and determination when we went down to 10 men, to get back into it, continue working and continue to try and press them - that there takes a lot of courage."

Victory sit on three points after five rounds.