A nine-man Melbourne Victory has shown every bit of its championship qualities with a remarkable fightback to draw 3-3 with the Central Coast Mariners in an A-League classic at Telstra Dome.

The Mariners led 3-2 from the 23rd minute, and Melbourne looked dead and buried after having skipper Kevin Muscat and defender Roddy Vargas sent off in the first half.

But Victory striker Danny Allsopp bobbed up in the 87th minute to grab an unlikely equaliser for the home side - his second goal of the match.

It was the least the Victory deserved after it regrouped and refused to roll over after the loss of its two most senior players.

In a game which had everything, there were five goals and one send-off inside the first 23 minutes.

Twice the Mariners fought back from a goal down within a minute of the Victory taking the lead, then finally grabbed a 3-2 advantage in the 23rd minute when Adam Kwasnik slammed home a penalty conceded by Vargas.

Vargas clearly scooped a Kwasnik shot off the line with his hand to earn a red card.

There looked no way back for the Victory once Muscat was marched by referee Peter Green for a seemingly innocuous tangle with Jamie McMaster just prior to halftime to earn a second yellow card.

But with the Mariners on top and looking far more dangerous in the opening term, the Victory kept grinding away and attacking.

And eventually the persistence paid off, sending the 28,000-plus crowd wild when Allsopp capitalised after a magic build-up from Brazilian Fred to slam home.

The Victory extended its lead atop the A-League to 12 points with the draw.

Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick was predictably jubilant with his team's performance.

But Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna was scathing of his side's second half and gave them an angry post-match dressing room spray.

"It was disgraceful. We chucked two points away," McKinna said.

"Giving the ball away, no leaders on the park, no talking.

"It was granddad football - side-to-side, no penetration, no nothing."

It was a stark contrast to their brave first half.Melbourne's Allsopp had opened the scoring after just four minutes, before the Victory defence was caught napping and McMaster headed home an equaliser a minute later.

Archie Thompson put the Victory back ahead in the 10th minute, but again the home side's defence lapsed and Stewart Petrie belted home 60 seconds later to make it 2-2.

But even when the Mariners took a 3-2 lead and Melbourne went into halftime two men down, Merrick believed his side was still capable of getting a draw.

"I felt all the way through that game that the minimum we were going to get out of it was a point," he said.

"The boys were up, they closed down, we had 10 minutes of disastrous defence where we conceded three goals.

"Then when we went down to nine men we started pushing again. It was just a fantastic performance."

But the Victory will be understrength for its next match against Perth Glory next Thursday, with Vargas and Muscat to receive automatic suspensions for their red cards.

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