Sydney FC lead A-League by 12 with clinical win over Newcastle Jets

The heat and the smoke can’t stop them, nor it seems can any A-League opponent.

Sydney FC striker Kosta Barbarouses, who scored the winner on the night, in action against Newcastle Jets at McDonald Jones Stadium. Picture: AAP

The heat and the smoke can’t stop them, nor it seems can any A-League opponent.

Sydney FC are now 12 points clear at the top of the ladder thanks to an efficient 2-1 win at Newcastle on Friday night. It was hardly a vintage display, playing in temperatures above 30C and a bushfire haze for the second game in a row, but it still produced their ninth win in 10 games.

Goals for Adam Le Fondre – his 13th of the season – and Kosta Barbarouses mean the Sky Blues now have twice as many points or more than any side outside the top four. Much more of this and the season will become a procession.

It’s no wonder that strikers with pedigree and form remain football’s most prized commodity. Both the Jets and Sydney manufactured gilt-edged chances, but it was Sydney’s buoyant front pair who showed how to convert.

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Both goals were elegantly crafted, both were deftly finished from close range, and both showed Sydney’s ability to go through the gears in a manner few opponents can counter.

Le Fondre’s came first in just the 15th minute, a goal begun by Joel King’s tackle on the halfway line and continued by the runs of Milos Ninkovic and Anthony Caceres. The latter’s low cross was sidefooted in by the competition’s leading scorer.

His partner in crime’s total is climbing too, and the same trio of King, Caceres and Ninkovic were also involved in creating the goal for Barbarouses. This time it was Ninkovic who waited for the prime moment and crossed low for Barbarouses to flick home.

Compare those two finishes with the chances spurned by Abdiel Arroyo, whose rustiness was forgivable after weeks out with injury.

After just four minutes he headed into the ground rather than into the net from Matt Miller’s juicy cross, and early in the second half the ball bounced invitingly for a powerful shot from a few metres that cannoned off the bar.

You could argue that such margins are fine, but a career club scoring ratio of less than one goal every four games for Arroyo indicates it’s not unusual for him to miss such chances.

It took a moment out of the blue for the Jets to get on the scoresheet, Steven Ugarkovic lashing home from the edge of the box to earn Newcastle brief parity.

By a statistical quirk, this was a meeting of the two most successful coaches in the A-League in terms of wins – though Craig Deans’ record of 66.7% came from two wins in the three games he was previously overseen as caretaker.

Steve Corica, though, is just a fraction of a percentage point behind from a rather more convincing 44 games, and the Sky Blues team he has remodelled is apparently sailing towards the Premiers Plate.

Deans has more woes in preparation for round 15 against second-placed Melbourne City, with keeper Glen Moss succumbing to a calf injury late in the second half.

He was taken from the field, ending his night, and must be doubtful for the next round.

The Sky Blues go into the bye undefeated from their past nine games.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH