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 the Isuzu UTE A-League.
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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.
The big 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 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 halftime 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.
