Melbourne Victory have been left to rue their lack of a clinical edge as they drew 1-1 with Wellington Phoenix in an A-League Men clash dominated by contentious refereeing calls and lengthy VAR delays.
Victory opened the scoring through Ryan Teague in the 14th minute but failed to make the most of their dominance and conceded via Damien Da Silva's own goal late in the first-half at AAMI Park.
In a tense encounter, both teams had multiple penalty shouts either waved away or overturned by VAR, though neither coach blamed officiating decisions.
Tony Popovic's Victory were on the front foot, with winger Daniel Arzani particularly lively, but for a second consecutive week were wasteful.
Victory had 18 shots, with seven on target, while Wellington failed to register a single effort.
"We've got to become a little bit more clinical in our final decisions, a bit more ruthless in the box," Popovic said.
"But we held the opponent to zero shots today. The opponent didn't have a shot on goal. So that's a real positive.
"I feel our game is getting better. We got in the box even easier than last week, but we lacked the final touch."
Victory broke through via a lovely team goal, Arzani picking out Nishan Velupillay, who danced along the dead-ball line then slipped through Jason Geria.
The full-back squared the ball for the arriving Teague to power home.
Wellington screamed for a penalty in the 39th minute when Arzani clattered into Bozhidar Kraev, but referee Shaun Evans wouldn't be swayed, and there was no VAR review.
"I'm never going to criticise referees," Wellington coach Giancarlo Italiano said.
"They're doing their best, but tonight some of the decisions probably didn't go our way.
"Sometimes when we're at home they go our way, so hopefully it works out or evens out over the season."
Wellington equalised when 300-gamer Kosta Barbarouses's tantalising cross forced a sliding Da Silva to play at the ball and the Victory defender toe-poked into his own net.
Shortly after, Wellington were awarded a penalty when Da Silva clattered Nicholas Pennington in an aerial challenge.
But following a lengthy review with VAR Kris Griffiths-Jones, the spot-kick was chalked off over a marginal offside decision.
Victory received a penalty of their own in the 55th minute when Lukas Kelly-Heald was ruled to have fouled Bruno Fornaroli, but that decision was also overturned following a review.
In the 68th minute, Victory sub Ben Folami unsuccessfully appealed for a spot-kick after going down under pressure from Kelly-Heald.
Victory pushed for a winner, with Chris Ikonomidis and Teague having late shots, but were unable to find the killer touch.
"Yes, we had no shots," Italiano said.
"I didn't think it was our best game with the ball. But defensively it was another sound effort."
