Tal Wilson's clutch save hands Boomers a point against Wangaratta

The Red Devils dominated the possession battle as both sides traded blows throughout the contest, before Adam Burchell was brought down in the box in the final minute of regulation time.

He stepped up to take the spot kick, but was stunningly denied by Wilson with a lunging save to his left.

It was his first ever penalty save in a match.

"One of my teammates said as soon as it was given away 'Tal is going to save it'," Wilson said.

"In situations like that, you can't think about it too much, you just do it."

Wilson turned 17 last month and is keeping the experienced Matt Mildren, who made his return from injury in the reserves earlier in the day, out of the side.

"I appreciate the opportunity because Matt (Mildren) got injured, but I feel like I'm earning it a bit more now," Wilson added.

Boomers' coach Andrew Grove had full confidence in his young keeper.

"He does it at training all the time, he saves goals we think are in," Grove said.

"We've become used to it now, but you shouldn't be reliant on your keeper to be pulling out saves like that.

"Eventually the luck has to stop and a couple are going to go in."

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Wangaratta had some golden chances in the first 10 minutes, with Wilson denying Thomas Romero, and, moments later, Ethan Whiley struck the post.

Grove had a chance of his own with a minute to play in the half, but he too found the upright.

Both sides pushed for the winner, but apart from the penalty, neither had many shots on target.

"We set out to frustrate their style of play and we definitely did that I thought," Grove said.

"As soon as it got into dangerous areas, we won it nine times out of 10."

Wangaratta coach Daniel Vasilevski also lauded the performance of Wilson.

"He's brilliant. He came out of the blocks in the first half, he was so quick off his line," Vasilevski said.

"Even when we got the penalty, I thought he's a chance here, he's just a really good goalkeeper which is good to see."

Vasilevski won't dwell on the result, but is rapt to be undefeated and leading the league at the halfway mark.

"I think we were probably getting a bit spoiled thinking we were going to win every game, but it's not like that," he added.

"We're happy with being undefeated, even though we've had two draws, we're still on top."

Nick Franco left the field late with a suspected calf injury, joining Brendan Barton and Riley Hamilton on the sidelines.