Melbourne Victory have sewn up a spot in the A-League finals series with a 2-0 win over Newcastle at Etihad Stadium, a result which deals a further blow to the Jets' playoff ambitions.
Veteran midfielder Tom Pondeljak scored a rare goal 57 minutes in, bending a shot over the goalkeeper with the outside of his boot before Robbie Kruse marked his return from Socceroos duties with a well-taken effort 13 minutes later.
Newcastle, who have now lost seven of their last nine matches and four in a row, had Italian Marcello Fiorentini sent off just after the hour for a kick out at Marvin Angulo. The Jets find themselves four points adrift of sixth-placed Wellington with just two matches to go.
Victory's third win in the space of seven days secures their spot in the finals with one match remaining and strengthens their push for fourth place, which means they would host a final on the opening week. Gold Coast are the other team in the battle for that spot, but they have games in hand over Melbourne, who play their final game against Adelaide on Friday week.
While it wasn't their most-polished performance, it was a win achieved without their two most experienced midfielders in Grant Brebner and Carlos Hernandez as well as first-team regulars Archie Thompson, Surat Sukha and Billy Celeski along with suspended captain Kevin Muscat.
Danny Allsopp continued his impressive return to the A-League and was only denied yet another goal by some fine goalkeeping from Ben Kennedy in the first half, while Adrian Leijer relished being given more responsibility in a midfield role in Brebner's absence.
The undermanned Jets, missing close to their entire best XI, kept in the game until just after half time and could have had the lead if not for Michael Petkovic's athletic save from Jeremy Brockie free kick. But they did not create enough up front and were generally dominated in the midfield.
Melbourne Victory 2 (Pondeljak 57, Kruse 70)
Newcastle Jets 0
Crowd: 11,296 at Etihad Stadium