Wellington Phoenix continue to wait for their maiden A-League Women's victory, falling to a 2-0 defeat to reigning champions Melbourne Victory in Wollongong on Friday.
Even with a much improved attacking display, the Phoenix still conceded twice at the other end - as Alana Murphy and Tiffany Eliadis both netted in the opening half - to condemn the Kiwi side to a ninth straight loss.
But the scoreline doesn't tell the whole story, with the Phoenix coming away with five shots on target, compared to just three for the Victory.
Aside from shots on target, the Phoenix also nearly matched the Victory for possession, finishing 49-51 in favour of Melbourne.
Melbourne will be thankful for goalkeeper Casey Dumont, who made a match-winning contribution to deny the Phoenix's attackers the chance to score.
The performance leaves coach Gemma Lewis with plenty of positives, but ruing a chance to make a statement against the league's fourth best side.
"I actually felt like we were the better team for big periods of that," Lewis says.
"I thought the first goal came against the run of play. I felt like we had decent amounts of possession, I felt like we were controlling passages of the game so to come in 2-0 down at halftime was a really interesting one.
"Ultimately the difference between us and them was that they were clinical in moments when they needed to be and we weren't.
"That's the calibre of a top team that can live in moments when games aren't necessarily going their way and still get a result out of it."
The result sees the Phoenix bottom of the A-League Women's standings, with just a solitary point - earned with a scoreless draw against Western Sydney Wanderers in their competition debut last December.
Melbourne Victory 2 (Alana Murphy 13', Tiffany Eliadis 23') Wellington Phoenix 0
