Mariners drop first points

The Central Coast's winning start to the season has been brought to a halt, with defending Hyundai A-League champion Melbourne Victory becoming the first team in season 2007/08 to take points off the Mariners in a 0-0 draw at Telstra Dome.

But Lawrie McKinna's men can hold their heads high, taking a point from a match which was largely dominated by the Victory. Without star striker Nik Mrdja and with Sasho Petrovski injured early in the game, the Mariners worked hard on the counter-attack and could have had all three points with Adam Kwasnik hitting the bar once in each half. They remain top with 10 points from four games.

The Victory now has four draws from as many matches. Danny Allsopp and Archie Thompson had dominant games but couldn't master the final touch needed to finish the visitors off, while Mariners keeper Danny Vukovic had an excellent 90 minutes, defying the home side.

McKinna was full of praise for Vukovic's performance, with the Mariners now having gone 360 minutes of this season without conceding a goal.

"He had a couple great saves," he said. "Danny's cool, composed. It was good having Matthew Trott doing so well last week, it kept Danny on his toes. Danny, again was outstanding. It's reassuring for the defence to have him there"

Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick was pleased with his side's performance, but was left lamenting lost chances.

"The longer the game went we got stronger and stronger. We had some really good clear cut chances that we couldn't put away. In the end you're taking a point from the team at the top of the table. I think we matched them in almost every area and had the better opportunities."

It was the Victory which looked the more enterprising early in the match, with Allsopp leading the charge.

Several times in the first 15 minutes, the big striker beat two defenders to create openings for the Victory, the best of which fell to Thompson who headed over in the 10th minute. Moments earlier, Thompson had put Allsopp through but Vukovic managed to get down low and deflect the shot away with his legs.

The visitors' best early chances came from set-pieces, with Michael Theoklitos forced off his line a couple of times to intervene from corners. Up the other end, Mile Jedinak's intervention on Adrian Caceres' cross almost resulted in an own goal.

Petrovski hobbled off after just 24 minutes, replaced by Tom Pondeljak, but it didn't deter the Mariners from attacking, with Kwasnik knocking the ball over Rody Vargas' head and then crashing an optimistic shot into the bar on 26 minutes.

A poorly-taken Mariners corner created an excellent chance for a Melbourne counter-attack. Thompson intercepted, ran half the field, knocked it to Allsopp who almost returned the pass, only for Vukovic to get to the ball first. It was a similar story but roles reversed soon after, as Allsopp's out-stretched foot failed to reach Thompson's cross.

Chances were flowing thick and fast for the Victory late in the half. Kevin Muscat steered his header wide when left unmarked from a corner, while Vargas had a similar chance soon after, but didn't get enough purchase on it to worry Vukovic.

The second half started as the first one finished, with the Victory winning a succession of corners, and Vargas unable to find the net, despite