THE Newcastle Jets' season is in danger of slipping away after they slumped to a fourth straight loss, thumped 4-1 by a rampant Adelaide United at a rain-swept McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday night.
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The match was over as a contest at half time, with the visitors leading 4-0.
The Jets had no answers to the pace, power and precision of the Reds, who made it five straight wins to move into equal second place.
Kusini Yengi opened the scoring for Adelaide in the fifth minute and the goals continued to flow in an opening stanza that was one-way traffic.
Apostolos Stamatelopoulos got a goal back for the Jets in the 69th minute, heading home a cross from replacement Ramy Najjarine.
Matt Millar hit the underside of the bar in the 60th minute, but the damage was already done.
In their worst half this season, the Jets were second to the ball, turned over possession and misdirected passes, while some of the defending was diabolical.
Completing a disastrous night, captain Nigel Boogaard picked up is fifth yellow card of the season and will miss the trip to Perth to take on the Glory on Saturday night.
Frustrated coach Craig Deans issued an apology to the fans after the match for the 'unacceptable' performance.
"We need to apologise, myself and the players, for the first-half performance to the people who came out tonight in that weather," Deans said. "To dish that up is unacceptable.
"There is nothing positive to say about the first half. We were our own worst enemy again. We turned the ball over in the first five minutes for a goal which puts you on the back foot.
"We weren't prepared to do the hard work in the first half. We weren't prepared to do the dirty work in weather like that. It was never going to be a pretty game of football. We spoke about that. But there is talking about it and there is doing it. We are talking a lot but we are not doing a lot. We need to fix that very quickly."
Any confidence the Jets had from their five-game unbeaten run in February has gone.
They sit in 11th spot on 11 points - only ahead of Melbourne Victory - and are seven points adrift of sixth-placed Sydney and fifth placed Melbourne City, who have games in hand.
The only upside to a bleak night was the return of Najjarine from an ankle injury and the impact of Liridon Krasniqi off the bench.
The surface at McDonald Jones Stadium was near perfect despite the torrential rain that has hammered the Hunter, and having hosted the first game of the double header between Brisbane and Wellington.
Unfortunately, the atrocious conditions had a major impact on the crowd, with 2414 brave souls on hand for the two games.
Jets coach Craig Deans made one change to the XI that went down 2-1 to Sydney FC, with Lewis Italiano preferred ahead of Jack Duncan in goals.
Kusini Yengi, the older brother of Jets striker Tete, was promoted to lead the line for Adelaide in the only change to the outfit that thumped Melbourne Victory 3-1.
The 22-year-old scored his maiden A-League goal in that match and he was gifted a second inside five minutes thanks to a mistake by Boogaard.
The experienced defender, on receiving a back pass, took a heavy touch and Yengi swooped, moving the ball to his left and slotting a low drive into the corner.
A poor start became a disaster when the visitors added a second in the 10th minute.
Craig Goodwin was released down the left and fired in a cross for Stefan Mauk, who beat a sliding Angus Thurgate to the ball and squeezed it past Italiano for his sixth goal of the campaign.
Johnny Koutroumbis limped off a minute later with a leg injury. Rather than bring on a like-for-like substitute, Deans introduced striker Valentino Yuel and went to a back four.
The adjustment had the desired effect.
Thurgate had a shot deflect over the bar in the 30th minute - their first real sight on goal - and Steve Ugarkovic had a shot fizz past the post
However, the revival was short-lived.
Ben Halloran made it 3-0 in the 41st minute when he got on the end of a Javi Lopez cross.
Two minutes later Goodwin completed the first-half horror show, converting from the spot after Nikolai Topor-Stanley clipped Yengi from behind .
It was the first time the Jets have conceded four goals in a half since the 7-0 capitulation to Adelaide on January 24, 2015.
James Gardiner
James Gardiner, chief football and rugby writer at the Newcastle Herald.
James Gardiner, chief football and rugby writer at the Newcastle Herald.
