The Newcastle Jets face a Herculean effort in the return match of their leg two-legged A-League Women's semi-final with premiers Melbourne City after going down 3-0 at Maitland Sportsground on Sunday.
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A venue record crowd of 6836 - 310 more than when the Knights played Parramatta in an NRL trial match in 2018 - turned out but fell silent with the game just five minutes old when Daniela Galic followed up to finish from close range after Rhianna Pollicina's initial shot struck the crossbar.
Emina Ekic doubled the advantage in the 61st minute with a back-post tap-in after Laura Hughes' slick pass into the goalmouth.
Then Shelby McMahon made next weekend's second leg an even tougher prospect for the Jets, who are playing in just their third finals series in 16 seasons, with a composed and clever dink over the head of goalkeeper Tiahna Robertson after no one shut her down.
Robertson was making only her third A-League outing after getting the nod over American shot-stopper Izzy Nino.
The loss continued a winless run across 16 exchanges for the Jets with the competition's four-time premiers, who outplayed the hosts with a superior passing game.
Often, the Jets proved wasteful with long balls or passes into the final third.
City's defence were also resolute.
Newcastle's leading scorer Sarina Bolden has unlocked most defences in the league this season but could not get time or space on the ball.
Jets coach Ryan Campbell also lamented a skewed foul count 20-9 against the Jets.
Referee Bec Mackie issued four of five yellow cards in the game to the Jets, including one for Campbell late in the piece.
"I felt like the game never really got going," Campbell said post-match.
"They're obviously a decent team but I felt like we weren't actually given the chance to get involved in the game, to be honest.
"I feel like the referees had in the mind before the game something about the game and what they were going to stop, and I felt like as much as we tried to play, we just didn't get any rhythm."
Campbell, who took the reins when Gary van Egmond left mid-season to take up a role in China, said a big focus this week would be on scoring after the Jets failed to execute.
The hosts had 13 shots on goal compared to City's 12 but they were off target or diffused by a steely and desperate City defence.
Newcastle came out all guns blazing with the game played in City's end for most of the opening five minutes.
A sloppy pass back from Libby Copus-Brown to defender Lorena Baumann, however, quickly had Pollicina on goal in the fifth minute.
Robertson wrapped up Taylor Otto's back-post header off a corner three minutes later.
Pollicina put a shot across the face of goal in the 24th minute.
Lara Gooch forced a save out of City goalkeeper Barbara in the 27th minute and chipped a shot over the crossbar in first-half stoppage time.
Robertson retained her spot in the starting side with Young Matildas forward Lara Gooch and tireless Sophie Hoban replacing Emma Dundas and Milan Hammond in the only changes.
The loss ended a four-game winning run of the Jets.
The second leg of the semi-final will be played at AAMI Park with the winner across both ties advancing to the grand final. The traditional away goals rule does not apply. If the tie is level after regulation time in the second leg, extra time will be played.
City have won four championships while, until this season, the Jets had only twice made finals - in 2008-09 and 2017-18 - without progressing.
Sydney took a 1-0 lead over Central Coast in the first leg other semi-final.
