Both acknowledged that Victory should have ''won'' the game 3-2 and that Gui Finkler's second-half free-kick, which cannoned off the crossbar and bounced behind the goal-line, should have stood.

But it didn't – and it was Muscat who was the man handing out the brickbats when it came to a discussion of referee Chris Beath's handling of the game, and the failure of his assistants to point out that Finkler's kick had crossed the line.

''Everyone has seen it. We have seen referees before and asked questions. Regardless of whether it was in or not I am staggered to just comprehend at that moment where he is looking because if he says he is watching the ball and he is 18 yards away and he can't see it go over the line then we have got bigger issues.

''Obviously it was an error on Chris' behalf, and we move on. It's disappointing because normally when you score more goals than the opposition you win and that wasn't the case tonight.

''If we needed goal-line technology to see that one tonight we might as well get a robot. That was clear and obvious to see, we shouldn't have had to go upstairs for it,'' said Muscat.

Van 't Schip, unsurprisingly, had a smile on his face. His team had dodged a bullet, having led twice and been pulled back on both occasions and were lucky not to lose.

''I think like everybody's take on it, that was a goal, but not allowed so that's in football, it happens. In some countries they have the goal-line technology in place, then it would have been a goal. But here it's the eye of the ref and the linesman and that's always a hard one.

''For us it was lucky that they didn't see it, but on the other hand I think the foul that they got that free kick rewarded wasn't a foul, so maybe it was a good outcome.''

Muscat believes that the disallowed goal was not the only big blunder that the match officials made.

''There were three big decisions for me tonight and, in my opinion, they were all wrong.

''The goal was one, the penalty in the first half for Kosta (who was upended by a Paddy Kisnorbo challenge). After the incident, when asked by Leigh (Broxham, Victory's captain), he said there was contact but I didn't think it was a foul.

''At that point Kosta was one-on-one with the goalkeeper and he might have thought it was better to go down than score . He (the referee) said there was contact but he didn't give it.

''Then, 20 minutes into the second half when Kosta is brought down by (Ben) Garuccio, after we spend the first half with untold yellow cards, there was no yellow card. They would have been down to 10 men.

''It's staggering... where was he looking, I would love to know that on the goal, and the reason that after he sees contact and he decides in his opinion, that there was contact, that in his opinion it wasn't a foul.

''It's just become a little bit disillusioning... there were a number of positives (from the game), but if I am honest I feel a little let down and deflated. It's just deflating when the big ones need to be seen, and one was actually seen and not adjudicated a foul.''

Muscat was also critical of fans who lit a flare.

''It's not acceptable. In light of what we have seen in the last week, those individuals shouldn't come to our games any more. It's as simple as that. I sensed the reaction more so from the rest of the crowd that they were fed up with individuals with their mindless acts. It's about time we grow up.''