The Sky Blues were seconds away from another pre-season win before denied by a late equaliser.

Despite resting nine key players including Nikola Petkovic, Bernie Ibini, Alex Brosque, Ali Abbas, Pedj Bojic, Sasa Ognenovski, Vedran Janjetovic and Christopher Naumoff, the Sky Blues dominated much of the game against a full strength Melbourne Victory side.



An excellent finish from Austrian captain Mark Janko, his second goal of pre-season for the Sky Blues, in the 20th minute gave Sydney FC a lead which it held until the final minute when Falid Ben Khalfallah broke clear to equalise in .front of a crowd of 6520 in Tasmania.



It was the final warm-up before Sydney's season-opener against Melbourne City on 11 October after nine wins, two draws and one defeat from pre-season.



A satisfied Arnold said: "I thought we were outstanding. It was an excellent performance from everyone. We have rested nine players back in Sydney following the FFA Cup game and I played a lot of our young boys who all put in very, very good performances.



"The senior boys who played did very well and the young boys are now creating some fantastic depth in our squad and there's a lot of competition for places."



Sydney led after 21 minutes through Janko. Nicky Carle played a pass wide left to Alex Gersbach who sent over a left footed cross which Adrian Leijer failed to clear - the ball falling to Janko who turned to slam home past keeper Nathan Coe from 12 metres.



Victory hit back in the 89th minute with Ivan Necevski stranded one-on-one with Khalfallah after a ball over the top and the striker kept his nerve to round the keeper and slot the ball into the empty net.



In the ninth minute Connor Pain drove into the left hand side of the Sydney FC box and shot from an acute angle but Necevsk got down well to his left to save and hold onto the ball.



Janko hit the post in th 27th minute after being played in by Shane Smeltz and at the other end in the 63rd minute Necevski denied Besart Berisha with a smart save.



Arnold made a number of changes to the side which won 3-1 in the FFA Cup round of 16 against Sydney United five days earlier.

Matthew Jurman came in to the back four for Petkovic who was rested. Teenager Aaron Calver joined him at centre half while Seb Ryall moved to right back in place of Bojic who also took some time out.

Peter Triantis moved to the bench, swapping with Terry Antonis, while Ali Abbas stayed at home and Milos Dimitrijevic replaced him in the centre of the park.

Elsewhere Janko, Smeltz, Carle and another youngster Max Burgess all came into the starting line up. Necevski captained the side with Vedran Janjetovic on the bench alongside youngsters George Timotheou, Themba Muata-Marlow and Bai Antonio.