Sydney FC’s form slump continued with their worst performance of the season leaving Melbourne Victory sitting five points clear atop the A-League on Sunday.

Vitezslav Lavicka labelled his side’s 3-1 home loss to Newcastle a “disaster” as the sky blues lost a third straight match to continue their fall from premiership favouritism.

Jets coach Branko Culina scored a sweet win over his former club while English striker Michael Bridges also returned to haunt his old team with a double to help lift Newcastle off the bottom of the ladder.

The loss, combined with Melbourne’s 4-0 thrashing of a depleted Gold Coast on Saturday night, leaves the Victory in the box seat for the minor premiership.

Ernie Merrick’s men now have the biggest competition lead of the season sitting on 30 points, five ahead of second-placed Sydney who face the prospect of plummeting down the standings unless they quickly find form.

“We need to do a lot better, you don’t expect this at home,” Sydney FC captain Steve Corica said.

“We’ve got a lot to fix. Starting from the front to the back, we all have to work together and stick together.

“We’re not happy with three losses but we’ve still got 10 games or something to go.

“We’re still sitting in seconda few points behind Melbourne but we want to be a lot closer.

“We just have to get better.”
Sydney sit just a point ahead of Central Coast, who moved into third spot after a dour scoreless draw with Perth Glory at Gosford on Friday night, with Gold Coast also on 24 points.

The Glory (22) remained in fifth while Wellington (20) round out the top six despite suffering a 4-1 loss to Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday night.

The Roar (19) improved to seventh, ahead of the Jets (19) on goal difference with the win.

On Saturday night, North Queensland bounced back from their humiliating defeat to Central Coast to score a vital 2-1 win over Adelaide United thanks to goals from strikers Daniel McBreen and Robbie Fowler.

The win moved them to 18 points, leaving Adelaide (17) sitting at the bottom.

© AAP 2012

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