Melbourne Victory will quickly move on from spurning a golden late chance to claim all three points in their 1-1 derby draw with Melbourne City and focus on a brutal A-League Women schedule.
Victory substitute Tiffany Eliadis should have been the hero in injury time on Sunday when, with scores locked at 1-1, she got away on the break, but was indecisive as she bore down on Melissa Barbieri and sent a tame shot wide of goal.
"She broke away and her two thoughts were "do I take it all the way? But she saw that 'Bubs' was advancing a little bit and she spur of the moment thought 'chip her' and she had a go, (mis-hit) it," coach Jeff Hopkins told AAP.
"But look, she had a go. It was great that we were able to get a player into that position at that time of the game.
"Every credit to her, she came on and did a good job for us and yes we were all hoping she might put it away but yeah, that's the way things go unfortunately."
On her 24th birthday, Victory's Alex Chidiac scored the opening goal in the 13th minute before Hannah Wilkinson responded in the 37th minute at Casey Fields.
Victory sit fourth on 14 points, five behind second-placed City and face Western Sydney away on Wednesday before travelling immediately to South Australia for Saturday's clash with Adelaide United.
"Our dilemma is we've still got maybe five players that won't be available," Hopkins said.
"It was quite a tough, physical game today as well.
"So who we take to the Western Sydney on Wednesday will be most probably dependent on the players put up tomorrow."
City's 16-year-old playmaker Daniela Galic impressed against a Victory midfield featuring Matildas Chidiac and Elise Kellond-Knight, while coach Dario Vidosic was pleased with how his charges held out in City's third game in eight days.
"We said to her, 'they've got Matildas in that midfield and it's a fantastic opportunity for you'," Vidosic told AAP.
"It was a very very, very tough, gruelling week, two games away in tough conditions.
"But to come today, in the derby, third game in a week and to perform like we did, I'm just overall very, very proud of them."
Chidiac broke the deadlock when she anticipated Katie Bowen's pass forward to Karly Roestbakken and pounced.
She pinched the ball from Roestbakken, charged forward and whipped a powerful left-footed strike into the bottom corner, despite Melissa Barbieri getting a hand to it.
With 10 minutes left in the first half, City's Rhianna Pollicina headed the ball forward to Wilkinson, who with her back to goal laid the ball off to Galic.
The young gun slipped through right-back Kaitlyn Torpey, who cut inside then squared for Wilkinson to drag the equaliser into the bottom corner.
