First-year A-League club Melbourne Heart missed out on a golden opportunity to shore up a finals spot last night.

The Heart were held to a 1-1 draw by Gold Coast United at AAMI Park and even though it allowed them to move back into the top six, a win was what they were really after.

"I prefer to look at this game as two points dropped as we wanted to win this game to keep the pressure on our rivals on the ladder," he said.

"It's a game we wanted to win, but after looking at the whole game, I think the 1-1 was ok. We didn't keep the ball as we wanted, there were a lot of unforced errors and that was the problem.

"Every game for us now is big and if we'd won (this evening) we would still have to win the Derby on Saturday night. It's a six-point game."

The Heart are now a point clear of seventh-placed Newcastle Jets but have two games less to play, meaning a win in Saturday's Melbourne derby with the Victory is crucial.