THE Newcastle Jets are effectively dead and buried in the race for the A-League finals after a 3-1 loss to arch-rivals Central Coast at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday night.
Newcastle went into the penultimate-round clash three points behind both fifth-placed Wellington, who have played an extra game, and sixth-placed Sydney FC.
They home team led 1-0 but two goals from ex-Jet Samuel Silvera, one in each half, broke their hearts.
The Jets are still mathematically in contention but would need the miracle of miracles to sneak into the top six, given their for-and-against goal differential.
They would need to beat Sydney in the last round by a huge margin and hope also that either Sydney lose to Brisbane on Monday or Wellington are beaten by Macarthur next week.
Any Jets fan still clinging to hope of reaching the play-offs for the first time since 2017-18 might be better off investing in a lottery ticket.
The Jets enjoyed a dream start when Jaushua Sotirio made it 1-0 in the eighth minute.
Beka Miketdaze deflected a header from a Reno Picopo corner kick and Sotirio was on the spot to pounce and score from point-blank range.
But the Mariners equalised in the 28th minute when Silvera drilled one into the back of the net from an acute angle.
Sotirio had a chance to break the deadlock in the 56th minute when his powerful strike prompted Mariners keeper Danny Viukovic to parry it over the crossbar.
Silvera made it 2-0 in the 58th minute when he created space inside the box with a couple of nice touches and left Jets goalkeeper Michael Weir with no chance.
A minute later, Jets midfielder Brandon O'Neill was sent off after fouling Silvera, his second bookable offence of the match, leaving Newcastle playing catch-up with only 10 men.
Brazilian midfielder Marco Tulio made it 3-1 in the 69th minute with a cool finish.
Jets defender Carl Jenkinson was sent off in injury time for blatantly manhandling Mariners striker Jason Cummings, so Newcastle finished with nine men.
To see more stories and read today's paper download the Newcastle Herald news app here.
