Only a Jamie Maclaren wonder strike from long range separated the teams.

It is not just Muscat who has had a gripe over this for several years now, but his team was the hardest hit over the weekend.

The FFA has held out against all calls to cancel the round whenever the Socceroos are in action. That might have been fine years ago, when the majority of the team were based overseas, but increasingly Ange Postecoglou is happy to select A-League players, leaving their clubs under strength.

"Wellington will play [on Sunday] missing six players, and to me the integrity of the competition is jeopardised," Muscat said.

"Next year we will put into the FFA that we want to play Wellington on the FIFA dates. The integrity of the competition is brought into disrepute."

The FFA had a split round last week and this - ostensibly to give teams involved in the Asian Champions League a break - but inexplicably Victory was not scheduled to play last week.

"We didn't play last week and then were forced to play this week when four players are away on international duty. Common sense will prevail but it will take a while for the penny to drop.

"We could have all played last week and been off this week. But that makes too much sense to me."

Victory are secure in second spot. The hosts had the better of the first half and went close on a number of occasions but an experimental Victory line-up came back strongly in the second period and were unlucky not to secure a share of the spoils with a second-half goal.

Of course Muscat and his coaching staff will not be happy with the scoreline but he will have taken plenty of positives from the way his undermanned team played against a side competing in the Asian Champions League and themselves pushing for a top four spot.

Socceroo boss Postecoglou has complained that not enough youngsters were getting chances in A-League starting line-ups, but he could not have found fault with Muscat's selection on Saturday night.

With four key players - attackers Besart Berisha and James Troisi and wingers Marco Rojas and Jai Ingham away on international duty with Kosovo, Australia (two) and New Zealand respectively - Muscat put his faith in his team's developing talents.

While he did not come away with a point he saw plenty that would have made him happy about the prospects of a handful of players who have so far had limited game time. Fresh legs might need to be pressed into action in the last few games of the regular season, particularly if senior players are injured or the coach feels he needs to rest key men..

Stefan Nigro came in and played on the right side of midfield from the off against Roar, while George Howard was given a rare chance to lead the line. Teenagers Christian Theorharous and Cameron McGilp were on the bench and both saw action in the closing stages of the match as Victory pressed hard for a leveller.

Having lost talented teen Sebastian Pasquali to the Ajax youth team, Muscat is anxious to keep the next wave of up-and-comers, at least until he has decided whether or not they have a future with the club.

Victory would have to implode spectacularly and lose their last three games by heavy margins while Brisbane or Melbourne City won theirs by equally convincing scorelines not to take second spot.

As a result, Muscat had the luxury to experiment without any real consequence. In fact the only opportunities in this game were for Brisbane, pushing hard to catch Melbourne City for third place, and for Victory's crosstown rivals City, who would have hoped for a Victory win to stop Roar's challenge.

with AAP