Nick Sculley blogs on Melbourne Heart for BackPageLead. Click here if you want to blog on the A-League for BPL.

Well, that wasn't the start we were hoping for. But at the same time there were countless positives to take from the 1-nil loss at the hands of the Mariners.

Michael Marrone lost his man at the corner which resulted in the matches solitary goal, however he recovered brilliantly to be my man of the match. His marauding runs down the right flank provided a major threat, whilst he hit a number of sweetly timed long-range efforts that had the crowd on their feet.

Simon Colosimo was a rock at the back, Alex Terra looked composed and dangerous throughout, while Nick Kalmar grabbed his chance with both hands and was solid in the centre of midfield.

Gerald Sibon, who I wrongly compared to Peter Crouch in my last blog, showed that he is far from a one-dimensional target man. Sibon is a class act; his passing and first touch sets him apart in the Melbourne line-up, much like Robbie Fowler and Michael Bridges with the Glory and the Jets respectively.

However the biggest positive from Thursday night's game was the crowd; more than 11,000 were at AAMI Park, the vast majority being Melbourne Heart fans. For an icy cold Thursday night this was a more than respectable figure which will only improve as the temperature rises and the AFL season draws to a close.

There is a great deal of room for improvement from Thursday night's performance; the likes of Skoko and Beauchamp will be better for the run, and for the league to be a success the Heart will be hoping that Rutger Worms performance was just an aberration and that we will see a marked improvement from him against the Jets.

Worm is a 24-year-old former Dutch youth international with the prime of his career ahead of him in the A-League, unlike the majority of the foreign players who have spent their twilight years on our shores. For the A-League to attract more international players of Worm's potential he needs to be a hit.

Looking towards Friday night's clash with the Jets and the Heart are in for a torrid time. The Novocastrians went to Hindmarsh in round one and were extremely unlucky not to come away with the three points.

For Melbourne Heart to secure their first win they will need to limit the impact of Michael Bridges and Kasey Wehrman, but more importantly they need to score goals. With a strikeforce consisting of Bridges, Sean Rooney, Ali Abbas and Marko Jesic it is extremely unlikely the Jets will go scoreless two weeks in a row.

Realistically, the Melbournians would be content to return from Energy Australia Stadium with a draw but with an improved performance the clubs first win is certainly not beyond them!