Muscat took off the gloves in his post-match interview, outraged that the opening goal by Luke Brattan on nine minutes was allowed to stand.

The assistant referee initially ruled that Tim Cahill had impeded goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas’ line of vision before the decision was overturned by referee Shaun Evans.

Brandan Fernando then scored on 77 minutes to finish off another bad night for Victory just 10 days after a 4-1 shellacking by their crosstown opponent.

Muscat told Fox Sports he was “staggered” that Brattan’s goal was not ruled offside.

“The ball’s almost actually touched Timmy so how he’s not impeding the goalkeeper’s vision is beyond me,” he said.

“So it starts from that. And it just seemed for the whole night there were two sets of rules. From that perspective it was utterly disappointing.

“I thought apart from that incident, even up until that incident, we were comfortable and obviously we were breaking things up and we looked dangerous in transition.

"We had a couple of chances in that first half. I think that was their first and only shot in the first half.

“All in all is was decent. But it was hard to play, it was hard to play tonight because it didn’t seem that anything went our way.”

Despite a number of flashpoints and a string of fouls from both teams breaking up the play, Muscat said he didn’t feel the game was “overly physical.”

But he took aim at City’s players who he suggested were guilty of play-acting to soak up time.

“If anything it was disappointing there was that much stoppage in play and rolling around,” he said.

“You know, when foreign teams come here it’s frowned upon – all of a sudden it was acceptable tonight."

The Victory boss said the second goal, that came from a mistake at the back, was disappointing.

“We were pushing, we were working hard,” he added.

“I think we eliminated the areas that they wanted to play through. On the flipside we created some chances and some pressure ourselves and then you kill yourself with an individual error for the second goal.”

Referee Shaun Evans took the unusual step of facing the media post-match to explain his decision on the first goal.

He said the assistant referee raised the flag “feeling an offside player interfered with the goalkeeper’s line of vision.

“I went across to discuss what he thought," the whistle blower told Fox Sports. "I said the player in the offside position didn’t interfere with the goalkeeper’s movement and therefore the goal stands.”

City will now face Sydney FC in the FFA Cup final at AAMI Park on November 30.