The Victory dominated possession throughout the game but failed in the final third, while when they had goalscoring opportunities they were thwarted by an inspired Tando Velaphi in goal for Perth.

Merrick said after the game: "I'm always concerned about not scoring goals but we're scoring goals at training, we scored three goals last week and I thought we had enough chances to score goals tonight as well. It's a concern for any team."

Melbourne were without Archie Thompson and Robbie Kruse due to injury, but Merrick says they won't be rushed into any signings.

"Without waiting for Archie, we're working very hard to get another striker," he said. "We're working close and we're getting much closer."

Merrick added he felt the Victory would need to tinker with their forward line-up after a frustrating display.

"It was very tight in there," he said. "Young Mate (Dugandzic) discovered how tough it is to play sometimes in a full-time professional world and backing up your performances.

"But to his credit he never stopped working and running, I just didn't think he had a partner tonight to take the load off him.

"Carlos (Hernandez) was dropping too far back and Tommy (Pondeljak) a little bit wide, so we need to sort out that attacking line-up."

In assessing the game, Merrick added: "I thought we just didn't convert that quality possession through defence and midfield into goals and you pay the price for it, all credit to Perth who played a defensive counter-attacking game and they got the result.

"I don't think it was a flat performance. I thought our inter-passing was very good and our defence, by and large, was rock solid."

Victory defender Kevin Muscat added: "The fans were brilliant and I thought the atmosphere in the stadium was second to none but unfortunately we couldn't give them what they deserved."