THE Newcastle Jets are in free fall.
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The Jets slumped to a fifth straight loss, going down 2-1 to a 10-man Perth Glory at HBF Stadium on Saturday night.
Perth played the final 55 minutes a man down after Jonathan Aspropotamitis was sent off for a second yellow card.
The home side led 2-0 at that point through goals to rookie striker Ciaran Bramwell (17th minute) and defender Darryl Lachman (24th).
Roy O'Donovan pulled a goal back for the Jets with a brilliant finish on the hour.
The visitors finished the stronger but couldn't find a much-needed equaliser despite delivering 27 balls into the box in the second half.
O'Donovan had a shot curl past the left post and Apostolos Stamatelopoulos skied an effort from point-blank as nothing fell for the Jets.
Credit to Perth, they were resolute and ran themselves into the ground.
The loss leaves the Jets in 11th spot on 11 points, eight points behind sixth-placed Sydney, who meet Adelaide on Sunday.
The result ended a stretch of five games without a win for Perth, who moved to seventh on 17 points.
Next for the Jets are Western United at McDonald Jones Stadium on Easter Monday.
Another loss would equal their worst run of defeats - losing six straight to end the 2016-17 season.
Coach Craig Deans made three changes - two forced - from the horror 4-1 surrender to Adelaide United.
Lachy Jackson, Valentino Yuel and Ramy Najjarine were the fresh faces, in for Nigel Boogaard (suspended), Johnny Koutroumbis (knee) and Angus Thurgate, who was relegated to the bench.
Deans also changed formation to a 4-3-3.
The visitors thought they had opened the scoring in the fifth minute when O'Donovan struck on the counter, collecting a long ball and sliding a shot past Liam Reddy, only to be flagged for offside.
Perth soon took control and went ahead in the 19th minute through Bramwell.
Bruno Fornaroli played a clever square pass across the box. Osama Malik feigned to shoot, allowing the ball to travel to an unmarked Brammel, who drilled a low shot past the hand of Lewis Italiano to open his A-League account.
Dutch defender Darryl Lachman joined in on the act four minutes later, climbing high to head home a corner for his first goal.
Alarm bells were ringing for the Jets.
Then in a major twist, the Glory were reduced to 10 men after Jonathan Aspropotamitis bundled over Najjarine just outside the box and was booked. It was the centreback's second booking after he had clipped the heels of O'Donovan in the fifth minute.
O'Donovan went agonisingly close pulling a goal back on the stroke of half-time, denied by the underside of the bar.
Perth coach Richie Garcia said at the break that the home needed to continue in the same vein.
However, the Jets penned the Glory in at their own end early in the second half.
Still, they needed a bit of magic and O'Donovan delivered in the 58th minute.
Nikolai Topor-Stanley whipped a ball into the box and the striker used the outside of his right foot to turn a shot into the top-right corner.
All of a sudden, the Jets were on top.
They pushed and probed and stretched the defence, but couldn't find a killer punch.
James Gardiner
James Gardiner, chief football and rugby writer at the Newcastle Herald.
James Gardiner, chief football and rugby writer at the Newcastle Herald.
