Melbourne Victory strike late to deny Central Coast Mariners back-to-back wins

The struggling Central Coast Mariners were denied back-to-back A-League wins for the first time since April 2014 on Friday as Besart Berisha scored an injury-time equaliser to complete an unlikely Melbourne Victory comeback at Simonds Stadium.

The Mariners, who ended an 11-game winless streak with a 3-1 win over Wellington Phoenix in their last match, seemed on course for victory after going in three goals to the good at half time.

They took the lead through Harry Ascroft after 11 minutes before two goals in five minutes either side of the half-hour mark from Josh Bingham and Mitch Austin put them three up.

Besart Berisha's penalty in the 60th minute gave Melbourne hope of a fightback and they cut the deficit to one six minutes later through Archie Thompson.

In the final 20 minutes Melbourne bombarded the Central Coast goal but missed several excellent chances to equalise and it looked as if the Mariners would hold out.

However, in the second minute of injury time Berisha netted his 10th goal of the season to snatch a point for the Victory, who have now won just one of their last six.