Brandon O'Neill has boosted Newcastle's hopes of making the A-League Men's finals and dealt a huge blow to Macarthur's prospects with a stunning stoppage-time strike in their 2-1 home win.
O'Neill lashed home an unstoppable shot from outside the penalty area in the sixth minute of added time to secure a precious win at McDonald Jones Stadium on Friday.
It was a deserved win for Newcastle who had 16 more shots than Macarthur but had looked likely to drop two valuable points after substitute Bachana Arabuli headed an equaliser in the second minute of stoppage time.
Newcastle captain and defender Matt Jurman opened the scoring in the 79th minute, with a powerful header giving him his first ALM goal since March 2015.
The victory ended Newcastle's six-match winless streak and moved them up two spots to seventh, just behind Sydney, who remain sixth on goal difference.
Macarthur remained 11th but dropped three points behind Newcastle, as they lost a seventh straight away game.
Both Jurman and midfielder O'Neill scored their first goal for Newcastle, who dropped vital points in two of their last three games by conceding late equalisers.
"When they (Macarthur) scored, I thought 'here we go again' and I was just the lucky beneficiary at the right moment at the right time to keep our season alive," O'Neill told Paramount Plus.
Newcastle had the first six attempts of the game, but lacked precision and penetration in the final third.
The Bulls were barely sighted as an attacking presence in the first half, taking 32 minutes to produce a shot.
The trend continued in the second half, as Newcastle continued to create and squander chances.
"Credit to the boys, I thought we played really well the whole game,' Jets coach Arthur Papas told Paramount Plus.
"I thought our intent was excellent for the whole game and we worked so hard and we got our rewards finally."
"We still control our destiny for the most part."
Macarthur finally showed some urgency in the latter stages of the game, but as they did against Western Sydney in their last game, conceded in stoppage time.
"It really does hurt, he (O'Neill) hit it perfectly into the top corner so credit to him but it's a hard one to take." Macarthur's Tomislav Uskok said.
"Ideally, you'd like to get a bit more pressure on the ball towards the edge of the box there but we're working in a game in split seconds and inches and we didn't do it in that moment and got punished for it."
