Jamie Maclaren scored a landmark goal as Melbourne City went four points clear at the top of the A-League with a clinical 3-1 win over lowly Newcastle Jets.
Captain Scott Jamieson and Maclaren, the league s leading scorer, added second-half strikes to an early own goal, before Steven Ugarkovic grabbed a late consolation for the league s bottom side.
The result means Melbourne City hold a comfortable lead over Sydney FC and Central Coast Mariners, who each have 31 points and have both played one more game than the leaders.
City edged ahead against Newcastle in the 32nd minute when Andrew Nabbout raced in from the left and shot across goal, with his strike taking a decisive deflection off Jets defender Johnny Koutroumbis on its way past goalkeeper Lewis Italiano.
Captain Jamieson scored the goal of the game and his first for the club after 59 minutes when he surged forward, coming from a deep position on the left, and curled a 20-yard strike in off the right post.
A first Melbourne City FC goal for your captain, !
You love to see it. | |
— Melbourne City FC (@MelbourneCity)
Maclaren bundled in from close range for City s third goal 10 minutes later after Nabbout won a race to the ball and centred from the right, giving the striker an easy put-away for his 20th goal of this A-League season.
Maclaren has now scored 20 or more goals in four different seasons in the A-League. No other player has reached that mark in more than two seasons since the start of 2011-12 (Besart Berisha in 2011-12 and 2016-17).
The only disappointment for the hosts was they did not manage a clean sheet. They were caught napping in the 87th minute, with Matthew Millar stealing possession in midfield and feeding Ugarkovic who finished tidily past Tom Glover.
City have now won their past six home games in the A-League, their longest winning sequence at home in the competition, scoring at least three times in five of those matches.
