It was Besart Berisha’s penalty which separated the two teams at ABD Stadium and Hume took Victory to the very end.

Victory were scrappy with the ball, they hardly made goalkeeper Chris Oldfield work and Muscat deemed it as an ordinary performance.

“I’m grateful in the end, it wasn’t a good performance from ourselves and on the night I thought we got away with it,” Muscat said.

“We didn’t keep the ball anywhere near as well as we should’ve, turning the possession and giving them incentive to come at us, so from that perspective it wasn’t a good night for us. But we’re happy to be in the next round.

“It’s difficult because they’re dropping deep and getting a lot of men behind the ball. To get into that third you need some composure and quality, albeit it was a greasy surface.

“I’m not prepared to make any excuses, we have to ask ourselves whether we’re trust worthy on the ball individually. Collectively we’re trying to put something together and if you don’t keep possession it’s impossible to implement.”

Despite his disappointments Muscat didn’t have any doubts about the final result.

“I don’t think we were ever in any real danger, with all due respect I thought Hume were fantastic, I thought Dean (Hennessey) set his team up with a game plan and I think they adhered to that,” he said.

“I don’t think we were under any threat of losing the game, but I don’t want to win 1-0 and play like that, I’m far from satisfied with that performance.

“Albeit I’m happy to be in the next round and it gives us an opportunity to get back to training and get some good work into the players into the next round.”

James Troisi also made his debut for Victory in the game against Hume, accumulating 70 minutes under his belt.

With the performance displayed by the team, Muscat was pleased with Troisi, however was focusing on the team collectively.

“It’s difficult for him (Troisi), he’s been looking bright and sharp in training. Training is one thing, first half I thought he was the best player on the park,” he said.

“We missed a lot of opportunities to get our attacking players on the ball. I can’t recall quality service to the front three and then structure goes because you’re always fighting.

“From that perspective it was very disappointing, the week hasn’t been like that, it’s been very bright, so the opposition tonight made it difficult.”