Newcastle Jets sweat on the health of key players Cassidy Davis and Murphy Agnew as they look to move on from 5-1 loss to Melbourne City in round 4 of 2022-23 A-League Women

Davis did not return to the field after half-time on Saturday due to a head knock in the first half and Agnew came off in the 66^th minute with a groin complaint.

The departures were added blows for the Jets, who trailed 3-0 at the break of their A-League Women's round-four clash in Melbourne.

They created more scoring opportunities than their counterparts. They had more shots on target.

Yet, Newcastle left Casey Fields with nothing to show for it and plenty of questions around their finishing, or lack thereof.

It was the Jets' equal worst defeat to the competition heavyweights and continued a poor record against the four-time championship winners.

Newcastle have never beaten the benchmark side in 12 encounters. Only once have the two sides drawn.

But while the scoreline was brutal viewing, the performance was more than encouraging for Jets coach Ash Wilson.

They put City, who are unbeaten in three starts, under immense pressure for no reward.

They forced their opponents to cough up the ball in danger areas and had two good chances inside the first seven minutes through Ash Brodigan and Lucy Johnson.

Had they scored one of those, or if the trajectories of long-range efforts from Brodigan and Tara Andrews in the second half that hit the woodwork were minimally different, the game could have been a different story. But it wasn't.

"It's a hard one to comment on because a lot of the performance was quite good," Wilson said.

"We definitely needed to be more clinical in moments. That would have put them under more pressure and not allowed them to have the confidence in certain areas that they did.

"There was so much of it that I was happy about. But to cop five, and some of them were preventable, we definitely could've done better in certain moments.

"We need to be a little bit more ruthless in how we're shooting and where we're shooting ... We need to take that performance and make sure that we are getting an end product for all of the work we're doing."

City made Newcastle pay with their opportunities.

The first came in the sixth minute. Emily Garnier's clearance from inside the Jets' 18-yard box landed just outside the area and an advancing Kaitlyn Torpey took a touch then buried it over the head of goalkeeper Georgina Worth.

City skipped 2-0 ahead in the 27^th minute when Worth misjudged an in-swinging corner kick, getting her hands to the ball but not able to stop it from finding the back of the net.

Two minutes later, Bryleeh Henry finished from close range after a goalmouth scramble and City took a comfortable 3-0 lead into half-time.

The Jets made City uncomfortable after the break, again without reward until Andrews gave them hope with a trademark back-post header in the 70^th minute off Brodigan's perfectly placed free kick.

The momentum shift was, however, short-lived. City substitute Cailtin Karic scored with a long-range effort in the 78^th then American Emina Ekic completed the rout from the penalty spot in the 81^st after being felled by Cannon Clough in the box.

The statistics told a harsh story. Newcastle created 19 shots on goal with 10 on target for their one goal. City created 13 chances with eight on target for five goals.

The Jets must quickly regroup before another Melbourne trip to face Victory in round five next Sunday.

It wasn't the only blow-out scoreline on Saturday. Canberra beat Wellington 3-0 and Sydney downed Brisbane 4-0.

On Sunday afternoon, Western Sydney were set to play Adelaide. Perth were playing Victory on Sunday night.

MORE IN SPORT:

WHAT DO YOU THINK? We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on the Newcastle Herald website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. Sign up for a subscription here.