Perth Glory's bold bid to make the A-League Women finals continues to gain pace after Cyera Hintzen produced two wonder goals in a crushing 4-0 win over Newcastle at Macedonia Park.
First-half goals from Sofia Sakalis and Isabella Foletta set the tone in Sunday's clash, before American import Hintzen stole the show with two spectacular goals after the break.
Her first came in the 67th minute when she took two quick touches while under pressure before curling in a right-foot strike from the edge of the box.
Then in the seventh minute of added time Hintzen repeated the dose - this time off her left boot from long range.
Glory's third win on the trot has reduced the gap between them and fourth-placed Melbourne Victory to seven points, and importantly Perth have two games in hand against the defending champions.
"She's a very special player. She's extremely underrated," Glory coach Alex Epakis said of Hintzen.
"She's not someone who thrives for the attention, but I believe she deserves all the attention she gets.
"It's not just her goalscoring. She does a significant amount of work without the ball, pressing.
"For me, she's the perfect benchmark No.9, and I love working with her."
The Jets were playing their third game in eight days, but coach Gary van Egmond didn't think that was the reason behind their poor performance.
"There's no excuses," van Egmond said.
"It's a case that we want to put ourselves into those positions and put ourselves under that pressure and come out the other end and succeed.
"That's possibly where us as a whole group let ourselves down today and let our fans down.
"We have to become more resilient and have a better mentality as a whole group."
Sakalis opened the scoring with a 15th-minute penalty, and it was 2-0 in the 41st minute when Foletta scored a memorable first ALW goal.
Foletta, on an injury replacement contract at Glory, barged through an opponent on the wing to set up a foray forward by Sakalis.
The ball eventually made its way back to Foletta, and she powered home a beautiful long-range strike.
Sakalis had the chance to score her second penalty in the 50th minute following a handball in the box, but goalkeeper Georgina Worth produced a stunning diving save.
Glory continued to push for a third, and Hintzen produced a curling effort from the edge of the box while under pressure from an opponent to break Newcastle's resistance for good.
Perth substitute Alana Jancevski produced her own long-range highlight late in the match, only for it to be ruled out for offside.
But the home fans were rewarded at the death, with Hintzen popping up again to add the icing on the cake.
