It may be a fraction too late for finals, but the Newcastle Jets showed their season is far from over with a stirring performance in a 2-0 win against competition leaders Western United in Ballarat on Wednesday.
In just Gary van Egmond's second game in charge, Newcastle produced a confident, fast-paced attacking performance to lift themselves five points clear of last-placed Wellington Phoenix.
Centre-back Taren King struck with a back-post header off a corner in the 38th minute then tireless striker Ash Brodigan sealed the win with a spectacular volley in the 47th minute.
And there could have been plenty more.
It was Newcastle's second game in four days, after they had succumbed 3-0 to Canberra at No.2 Sportsground on Sunday afternoon.
The Jets produced a strong first-half effort that game but were left empty-handed after a devastating seven-minute period in which they conceded all three goals.
Their goal remained intact against Western United, however, with Newcastle recording just their second clean sheet of this A-League Women's campaign and their first win since beating Adelaide 2-0 on New Year's Eve.
Van Egmond replaced Ash Wilson as coach last week as the club looked to salvage something from what has been an underwhelming season results-wise.
Newcastle remained in second-last position after the confidence-boosting win over Western United, who were unbeaten in the opening seven games of their first ALW season, but improved to 10 points to be one behind Western Sydney in ninth.
While they are 11 points adrift of the top four with six games remaining, the Jets are now within striking range of several teams above them and have an opportunity to climb higher up the ladder with a repeat performance against eighth-placed Perth (12 points) in Perth on Sunday night.
"We need to keep some consistency and we need to gain some momentum for the back end of this year to take that into the following season and today was good," van Egmond told the Newcastle Herald post-match on Wednesday night.
"We were very pleased with how the girls were able to ensure that the game plan was 100 per cent played out the way we wanted to play.
"Is there room for improvement? Absolutely there's room for improvement, but definitely steps in the right direction, so it was great."
The Perth trip is one of the most feared in the A-League due to travelling logistics but the Jets will have the luxury this time around of being in Western Australia well before game day. They travelled from Ballarat to Melbourne by bus on Thursday morning then flew to Perth.
"It's a difficult place always to travel to for any team on the eastern seaboard but we showed a lot of mentality today," van Egmond said.
"We had one less day of recovery in comparison to [Western United]. We had to travel to their home ground, getting to Melbourne then having to travel to Ballarat by bus and then you have to perform, and today that's what the girls did.
"They stood up and showed what the team and what the club is about."
Van Egmond made one change to the starting side from their 3-0 loss against Canberra.
Seventeen-year-old attacking player Lara Gooch replaced left-back Leia Puxty, who dropped back to the bench. Lauren Allan shifted from an attacking role to fullback.
The game in Perth will be the last of the season for American Sarah Griffith, who is on loan to Newcastle from Chicago Red Stars.
The Jets announced on Wednesday the club had been in discussions with Chicago and agreed to allow Griffith to return to the United States to prepare for the upcoming National Women's Soccer League season.
The loss was the second in a row for Western United (27 points), who were beaten 3-1 by Perth in Ballarat last Saturday.
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