Melbourne Victory have opened their trial match campaign ingloriously when it was downed 3-1 by Victorian Premier League side Green Gully.
An undermanned Victory was outmuscled by the Cavaliers at Green Gully on Monday night.
Matthew Kemp converted Victory's only goal from the penalty spot while Kristijan Ivesic, John Adam and Ryan Ollerton tucked away chances for the winners.
Recruit Michael Thwaite was best for Melbourne in his first outing for his new club while Brazilian addition Ney Fabiano showed positive signs.
The Victory fielded eight Victorian Institute of Sport players for the match and ended the hitout with just nine men after Evan Berger and VIS youngster Fabio Dilizia were dismissed.
Melbourne assistant coach Aaron Healey, who stood in for the absent Ernie Merrick, said the match was important to the pre-season campaign.
"We trained pretty hard this morning and most of the boys had a good 60 minutes on the pitch tonight," Healey explained.
"Obviously we're disappointed with the result, but in the end we had two senior players out of nine men left on the park."
"The VIS program has proven to be very successful and to have eight of their players down to play with us tonight was fantastic."
Healy said a host of big names would be filtered back into the side in the coming weeks.
"We had 10 players out tonight, but next week we should have Rodrigo Vargas, Carlos Hernandez, Nick Ward, Sebastian Ryall and Nathan Elasi available," he said.
"As long as we keep getting players fit and out on the park, we'll improve and be ready for the start of the season."
Thwaite captured the attention of Healy and the 2000-strong crowd.
"Michael Thwaite was outstanding on debut," Healey said.
"He was fantastic and he's going to be a great signing for us."
The Victory's next trial match is against the Whittlesea Zebras at Epping Soccer Stadium next Tuesday night.
Melbourne Victory 1
(Kemp 86 pen)
Green Gully Cavaliers 3
(Ivesic 12, Adam 82, Ollerton 90)