Muscat happy despite A-League draw
It was Groundhog Day at AAMI Park on Saturday.
In another match with another title contender, Melbourne Victory again showed their abilities.
Again, Victory's forwards dazzled with the ball at their feet, attacking with menace and flair.
Again, they dominated possession.
And again, they weren't victorious at the end of the night.
Victory's 1-1 draw with A-League leaders Perth Glory is the latest in a string of missed opportunities for Victory to assume top spot most pundits feel they deserve.
With five teams in the thick of the A-League title race, the draw means Victory slipped from second to fourth place.
Three times this season Victory have fallen short against Glory.
Kevin Muscat's men have twice thrown away leads to Sydney FC, with last weekend's capitulation to Wellington Phoenix still strong in the memory.
Not since November have Victory beaten a top-five club.
But Muscat said he was pleased with their performance, even if Daniel Georgievski's second-half goal was an equaliser and not a winner.
"If you analyse right here and now the performance and where we sit on the table, you might be disappointed," he said.
"But I'm pretty pleased, I thought our performance was pretty good.
"We showed a clear intent to try and go and win a football game.
"One of those chances goes in and we'd all be here talking about what a performance in the second half."
Even though Glory secured a point to keep them top of the league, coach Kenny Lowe called Victory "the best team in the league".
"I had about three heart attacks," he said.
"I thought second half, they asked a lot of questions of us."
Glory have their own concerns with a winless run of seven games.
But Lowe says his side can get better if they remember where the goals are.
"If we want to win the league, we need to get wins ... and we've got to score goals," he said.
"If we find that little knack of finding goals, bloody hell we might do OK this year."
