Socceroos striker Jamie Maclaren continued his red-hot scoring run and Matthew Leckie notched his first Australian league goal in more than 10 years as Melbourne City thrashed Newcastle 4-2 in A-League Men.
Despite the absence of head coach Patrick Kisnorbo who tested positive for COVID earlier on Tuesday, City barely missed a beat as assistant coach Petr Kratky ran the team.
Kisnorbo will also miss Friday's A League Men away game at Western Sydney.
The win lifted City four places to second, three points behind intra-city rivals Western United.
City's big guns all fired in the match at McDonald Jones Stadium, with Maclaren scoring twice, making it seven straight games across club and internationals in which he has scored.
Leckie and Florin Berenguer also got on the scoresheet while Andrew Nabbout, Aiden O'Neill and Connor Metcalfe were also prominent.
"The boys had a fantastic attitude," said Kratky, who revealed he was in contact with Kisnorbo through the game.
"We know Newcastle is a very good team in the attacking phase and we expected they would give us troubles when they have the ball, but we tried to control the game on the ball, which we did."
"The boys executed well and worked hard."
The visitors had most of the best chances in the first half but it took them 40 minutes to unlock the Newcastle defence.
Berenguer started with a fine cross-field ball to Nabbout, who beat one and produced a lovely back heel pass to Metcalfe.
The Socceroo cut the ball into the centre where Berenguer swept the ball towards the net with Jets' substitute Riley Warland, who had replaced injured captain Matthew Jurman, unable to stop it it from crossing the line.
The game was effectively settled by two goals in three minutes early in the second half.
Maclaren clinically slid the ball across Jets' goalkeeper Jack Duncan into the far corner after good work from Berenguer and Scott Jamieson.
Leckie, who has spent most of the last decade playing in Germany, then added to the tally for his first Australian league goal since February 2011.
Newcastle pulled one back on the hour when Beka Mikeltadze converted a penalty to briefly draw alongside Maclaren in the race for the Golden Boot after Scott Galloway fouled half-time substitute Valentino Yuel.
Maclaren regained the lead a few minutes later when he got the final touch after a Metcalfe shot deflected off a Jets defender for his seventh goal of the season.
Newcastle's Angus Thurgate celebrated his 22nd birthday by making it goals in successive games with a fine turn and strike in the 84th minute.
Newcastle coach Arthur Papas said City were the benchmark side in the league and the best team the Jets had played this season.
"They played very well, we weren't completely there tonight," Papas said.
"They just had an extra step on us, they were quicker to everything sharper with everything
"The main thing was we didn't give up, fought to the last second."
Papas said Jurman had rolled an ankle and would get scans on Wednesday but hoped it wasn't a serous injury.
