Melbourne Heart boss John Aloisi saluted his team's second-half fightback against Adelaide United that may have saved his job - for the time being at least.

Heart - and Aloisi's coaching career - looked finished at half time, with Adelaide 2-0 up. But Andrea Migliorini inspired the home team to come back and take an improbable 3-2 lead before surrendering the initiative in the final quarter hour. Marcelo Carrusca's deflected free kick brought the visitors a share of the spoils in a 3-3 draw.

Safe at last: Andrea Migliorini of the Heart celebrates with coach John Aloisi after scoring. Credit:Getty Images

Aloisi had shown his huge relief with a highly emotional celebration when Migliorini, whose opening wonder strike from a long range brought Heart back into the game, equalised in the second half.

But after the match, Aloisi was calm and collected, declaring that he and the players were, in fact, unhappy not to have taken all three points after David Williams' penalty with some 20 minutes to go had put them 3-2 up.