Newcastle David Carney take a bow. The reborn former Socceroo produced a wonder strike to snatch the Newcastle Jets a 1-0 win over A-league champions Melbourne Victory at Hunter Stadium on Friday.
Two weeks after a man-of-the match effort in the 2-1 win over Wellington, Carney produced the goods again.
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Newcastle Jets defeat Melbourne Victory
Newcastle defeat Melbourne Victory 1-0 and continue the reigning championsâ A-League hoodoo at Hunter Stadium.
The winger won a free-kick in the 75th minute and then produced the killer blow.
In a move orchestrated on the training pitch, Leonardo pushed a free-kick out in front of Carney who hit a thunderous drive which swerved away from Danny Vukovic late and slammed into the left corner.
It has been an amazing turnaround for the 31-year-old, who was exiled for the second half of last season after a fallout with coach coach Phil Stubbins.
Until Carney's heroics Victory looked the most likely winner on the night. They had 60 per cent of possession and led the shot count 20-8.
The win continued the Jets' dominance of the defending champions.
Last season's wooden-spooners are now unbeaten in the past eight games and they have the greatest winning percentage of any team over the perennial power house.
Ever competitive, Victory coach Kevin Muscat bristled and vowed to end the rot when it was suggested that the Jets were the Victory’s bogey team in the lead-up to the round three clash.
Muscat's frustration levels reached boiling point midway through the second half and referee Strebre Delovski stopped play to tell the coach to calm down.
Neither side was able to score in an action-packed first half played at a high tempo.
Buoyed by their record against the Victory, the home side started better and should have punished the visitors when Milos Trifunovic pounced on an errant pass from Leigh Broxham in the 18th minute.
But with only Danny Vukovic to beat the Serbian struck a lame effort straight at the keeper.
It was a sign of things to come.
Trifunovic had another chance three minutes later but again fell short, unable to get a toe to a Leonardo ball across the face of goal.
The two close calls, stung the champions into action.
Kennedy made two good saves to deny Fahid Ben Khalfallah and Kosta Barbarouses.
Hired gun Besart Berisha beat the keeper but not the woodwork as the shot count rose to 7-1 in Victory's favour after half an hour.
But it was anything but one-way traffic. The Jets hustled and bustled and pressed hard.
The game opened up the further it progressed.
Victory right-back Daniel Georgievski was in the thick of things late in the half.
The tall defender crashed to the ground after being struck flush in the head from point-blank range by a fierce Mateo Poljak volley.
A minute later he was, perhaps, fortunate to stay on the field, when booked for a studs-up late challenge on the Jets midfielder.
In a repeat of the first half, Trifunovic should have broken the deadlock two minutes after the resumption.
In a swift counter attack, he out-muscled Broxham, but again his radar was wayward, with a low angled drive whizzing past the left post.
The Jets too continued to live dangerously. Georgievski was left unmarked from a corner but sprayed his header to the right.
Ben Khalfallah joined in the act, stabbing a shot wide to the left.
It seemed, the harder they tried, the worst things got in front of goal for Victory.
After the game, Victory coach Kevin Muscat said: "If you purely go on the chances, you could possibly say we deserved to come away with something.
"The disappointing thing is, for all our dominance, we were in their half of the field for long periods of time, we didn't create good chances, and the chances we did create, we didn't convert.
"We didn't really put them under pressure by going a goal up.
"It is a totally different story if we get that first goal. Then they have to change everything they have done. They have to come out and take a few more risks.
"The longer the game goes on and you don't convert one of those opportunities or convert your dominance, it gives them more belief."
Asked whether the result meant the Jets were Victory's bogey team, Muscat responded: "I don't believe it. Our performance didn't warrant getting beat tonight. We were the better football team.
"I thought we were proactive away from home. We huffed and puffed but didn't get any joy."