Adelaide United handed the Newcastle Jets their fourth consecutive loss and may have avoided the dreaded wooden spoon with a 2-1 win in Newcastle on Friday night.

Mathew Leckie sealed the match in the 74th minute, adding to Fabian Barbiero’s eighth minute goal, to lift United equal with North Queensland, who play Gold Coast tomorrow night.

But Adelaide have a far superior goal differential.

The Jets scored on 40 minutes with an Ali Abbas screamer from the top of the penalty area.

Jets captain Matt Thompson, in his last home match, had sent the ball long to debutant Mirjan Pavlovic who steered the ball to the unmarked Abbas.

Barberio gave the visitors an early lead by cleaning up a miscued clearance by Jets makeshift right back Jason Hoffman.

Candidate for the A-League’s young player of the year, Leckie had made an incisive run through the centre and his shot was impeded by Hoffman with the ball falling at the feet of Barberio who calmly pushed the ball between Jets keeper Ben Kennedy at the near post.

The Jets head into the finals with a 3-0 loss to the Mariners, a 2-1 loss to Fury and a 3-1 loss at the hands of Sydney FC.

“The result didn’t bother me tonight,” Newcastle coach Branko Culina said.

“I was more interested in the performance and I thought the performance, particularly in the second half, was good, bearing in mind we had half a dozen players missing tonight.”

Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar was pleased with his squad’s finish to the year.

“It was our first back-to-back win this season so that was very pleasing.

“The back four were very solid but I was disappointed in the way we conceded that goal.”

© AAP 2012

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