Despite Queensland Roar leaving the door open right up to a chance in the 94th minute Melbourne failed to take its chances and fell to a 1-0 loss at Sunscorp stadium tonight.

If results go against Melbourne in the other three A-League matches this weekend then the Victory will be a full game out of the top four - a situation the team found itself in around this time in season one when it emphatically failed to rise to the challenge.

 Tonight was a frustrating affair as Queensland dominated in the first half and managed to weather the Victory's best chances after the break.

Carlos Hernandez hit the post with a free-kick for Melbourne while Danny Allsopp missed an open goal - albeit hitting a first time shot on the end of a 40-yard aerial ball.

The general consensus from the Victory fans is that the team is paying the price for not playing enough attacking players and not having enough attacking depth.

The worm is turning on last season's top scorer in the league Danny Allsopp with his tally on just two after 13 games.

Next weekend Melbourne will be at home to Wellington Phoenix, the New Zealand-based team only one of two below Victory on the eight team ladder.

Anything less than a win and our season is over. Even with seven games to come after next week it's not dramatic to say that we won't be able to make up a gap of four-points plus in this horrible form slump.

Melbourne is putting together a winning run after starting its season with five consecutive draws.

Sydney is fast becoming our "bunny" in the A-League be it home or away and we continued the pain for bling with a 1-0 win last night - help yourself to the report from the official website.

Melbourne's new attack-based style paid off last night as the likes of Matthew Kemp and Kevin Muscat pushed forward from their backfield positions and exerted themselves on the contest.

And despite being quiet for most of the night Danny Allsopp helped himself to the match-winning goal nine minutes from time - on the spot and accurate with the finish when needed.

Melbourne is back in Adelaide for the second time of the season next week, last time it was a lucky draw after Nathan Burns blew an open header to win the game.

This time around Melbourne will be confident of continuing the winning form, but over the course of 90 minutes this team is still barely gearing up - as a fan I'd happily take a draw back from Hindmarsh stadium.

Sydney fans will claim that the game was over-officiated last night and a sprawl of yellow cards and a red to their midfield general Steve Corica would back that claim up.

The problem inevitably when the issue of referee influence comes up is Mark Shield is in charge, the man who I believe is a genuine contender to referee the 2010 World Cup final.

Last night I don't think he had much choice in sending Corica off, but by all impressions he was as much about the big stage of Sydney v Melbourne.

Despite being maligned in most fan-circles I continue to cut Mark a break, but he did himself no favours yesterday evening in terms of winning over both fans and neutrals who think he imposes himself too strongly on the contest.

And my pet hate? People who STILL continue to call him "Mark Shields" - how that ever came to be I don't know.

Until next time, go Victory.

Wellington Phoenix 2-2 Melbourne Victory - official A-League report.

So Melbourne led 2-0 and blew it this afternoon and were ultimately lucky not to lose the game. With a myridad of chances through the first half, most of them falling to Danny Allsopp, Melbourne could have had the game done and dusted.

 There are plenty of things to be worried about but to be perfectly honest I'm not devastated that we didn't win. In the big picture the Wellington Phoenix had to give their fanbase something in their first game as an A-League franchise and more than 14 000 fans saw a draw this afternoon. On the hour mark the Phoenix had missed a penalty and were trailing 2-0, their side showed plenty to get back in the game.

Melbourne's biggest worry right now is an injury to Ljubo Milicevic that forced him from the field in the first half. Up front it's just a matter of tuning, if we create this many chances in round 6 or round 12 we'll score a hatful, no question. Some fans are rather cruelly suggesting that our new recruit Carlos Hernandez should swim home to get fit...all i can say to that is to trust in our fitness staff and not get on his back just yet, heh.

There's no cause for panic and who knows, as the season goes on maybe a point from the New Zealand trip will be a good result for the other A-League teams.

You can see the goals by going to the 'video' feature on www.foxsports.com.au