McKinna was satisfied with a goalless draw at Leichhardt Oval on Monday night, particularly as his players are some way behind Vitezslav Lavicka's men in their preparations for the new A-League season.  

Speaking to au.fourfourtwo.com after the game, the Mariners coach said there were positives to take but still plenty of room for improvement.  

"Sydney had a lot of the play but you expect that," he said. "They've had 10 (pre-season) games where we are just back after three weeks off and have just had one week's training. It was a very hard week's training as well.  

"Danny Vukovic has made a couple of good saves and overall I'm reasonably happy. There's a lot of room for improvement and obviously some boys to come back (from injury). We won't get carried away by that by any means."  

McKinna was pleased with the way his team refused to buckle against Sydney FC and felt that the result might have been different had it been the latter end of the previous A-League season.  

"I think at the end of last season we'd have copped goals there," said McKinna. "That's the difference. We were solid at the back. Chris Doig's come in and done well.

"He looked solid and he's got a presence there alongside Wilko (Alex Wilkinson). He's another voice out there to bark orders.

"In some of those games in the Champions League where we lost it was probably the small bit that we were missing.  

"Doig's in there with the vocals and that can help when you're looking for a player to clear their lines maybe. Occasionally you can overplay it a bit and get caught. We need as many leaders out there as we can. He (Doig) was quite impressive considering he's only been here for a week.

"Sydney pushed forward and got people in the box in the second half but I thought we dealt with that reasonably well. We need to hold the ball better up front,"

The Mariners now head to the ACT for the next stage of their pre-season build up and the coach is looking forward to it.

McKinna added: "Belconnen's a big supporter of the club and ACT football. Going down there is a good chance to train at the AIS and look at trialists. Hopefully it will help us make a few decisions."

As for Sydney FC, Simon Colosimo said: "We've been working really hard on being organised and keeping clean sheets so it's pleasing to pick up another one."