It was Sydney’s ninth consecutive victory against the Jets, who are winless against the Sky Blues in their past 14 encounters.

The Jets remain second on the table, two points behind Sydney and one ahead of Melbourne City.

Newcastle surprisingly started the match without leading scorer Roy O’Donovan, who was advised to rest a minor groin strain, and English import Wayne Brown.

Sydney opened the scoring in the fifth minute, when Milos Ninkovic made the Jets pay for allowing Brazilian striker Bobo too much latitude in the box.

Newcastle came close to equalising three minutes later when rookie striker Joey Champness, O’Donovan’s replacement, blasted a left-foot shot that Sydney keeper Andrew Redmayne parried over the crossbar. 

The Jets had another prime chance in the 36^th minute when a ball deflected into the path of Andrew Nabbout, but he shot wide under pressure from Sydney defender Alex Wilkinson.

At the other end of the pitch, Jets keeper Jack Duncan was performing heroics in torrential rain to keep Sydney’s deadly strike force at bay.

Newcastle defender Daniel Georgievski, who returned from an ankle injury, was replaced at half-time by Nick Cowburn.

Five minutes after the resumption, Champness burst through to be one on one with Redmayne, but the keeper produced a fine save. 

Sydney tightened their grip on the three points after an unfortunate Duncan error in the 59^th minute.

Diving to collect a lame shot from Bobo, the ball slipped from his grasp in the greasy conditions and the Brazilian pounced to make it 2-0.

The Jets hit back in the 65^th minute when Dimi Petratos scored with a trademark long-range rocket that eluded the diving Redmayne.