Melbourne Victory refused to blame new A-League referee Chris Boyle for their 2-2 draw with nine-man North Queensland Fury in a controversial thriller at AAMI Park on Sunday.
Boyle, a former Scottish Premier League referee, was heavily involved in a match filled with fireworks and contentious decisions – among them sending off Fury duo Chris Grossman and Eric Akoto.
But a gutsy North Queensland side still managed to pinch a point with a penalty to Chris Payne in the 82nd minute to move to second place on the ladder.
As well as sending two players off, Boyle awarded three penalties and booked another two players for diving in his A-League debut.
The match threatened to get out of control entirely when the Fury were awarded their late penalty against substitute Diogo Ferreira for what appeared holding as both teams were waiting for a corner.
In the ensuing ruck around the referee, Akoto stormed up to Victory skipper Kevin Muscat and pushed him over, and was sent off.
But while Muscat felt the referee had made some baffling decisions – most notably the holding call against Ferreira – he believed the Victory were entirely to blame for failing to notch their first win of the season.
“It’s the first time that’s happened since the ’60s,” Muscat joked of the holding penalty.
“But what happened from his (the referee’s) perspective for me was irrelevant.
“We created enough chances to win a number of football games. We can only blame ourselves.”
Grossman’s departure turned the match on its head after the Fury held a deserved 1-0 lead through a 15th minute Eugene Sseppuya (Sseppuya) goal.
Grossman’s clumsy 29th minute challenge on Victory’s Robbie Kruse in the box earned a penalty for the home side, then surprisingly a red card which left the Fury down to 10 men for more than an hour.
Muscat thumped in the penalty and from there the Victory completely dominated.
But for all their possession they could not find the net from open play.
It was again left to Muscat and his penalty prowess to grab a lead on 75 minutes after new signing Geoff Kellaway was brought down on the edge of the box by Fury’s Osama Malik.
Just minutes later, Boyle awarded a penalty to the Fury against Ferreira, which Payne slotted home after Akoto was sent off to leave the visitors down to nine men.
The Fury spent the remainder of the match repelling a flurry of Victory attacks.
Goalkeeper Justin Pasfield made a brilliant save to deny Carlos Hernandez, with Adrian Leijer perhaps coming closest to a winner in injury time with an attempted diving header near goal.
The Akoto-Muscat fracas could also have a sequel, with the Fury considering an official complaint over the incident.
Akoto claimed he was verbally provoked by Muscat – allegations Muscat vehemently denied after the match.
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