Melbourne Victory forward Melina Ayres has continued her scoring streak with another A-League Women brace in a 5-2 win over Newcastle.
But the in-form striker was upstaged by a defender as Kayla Morrison bagged a hat-trick at AAMI Park on Sunday.
"I'm going to go and buy a lottery ticket," Victory coach Jeff Hopins quipped post-match.
"She (Morrison) loves to score. She's had a tough 12 months and I think the whole of the group are very, very pleased for her.
"But, look, she deserves it. She works hard and we work really hard on set plays, so to get a hat-trick today is pretty surreal."
Ayres scored twice in the opening eight minutes, including the opener from the penalty spot, to take her personal tally to five goals in three matches.
Morrison also netted twice in the first half, both times from set pieces, to put Victory 4-0 up at the break.
But the hosts' third straight ALW win came at a cost when they lost goalkeeper Casey Dumont (concussion) and defender Claudia Bunge (ankle) to injuries after the break.
Dumont was carried off the ground on a stretcher following a collision with the Jets' Ashlee Brodigan 10 minutes into the second half.
Substitute goalkeeper Miranda Templeman had to pick the ball out of the net within seconds of her entrance as Newcastle pulled goals back through Sarah Griffith and Brodigan.
But Morrison sealed the result in the 87th minute as she poked home a loose ball, pouncing when Jets goalkeeper Claire Coelho failed to deal with a corner.
"I'm very happy with the win and very happy with the first-half performance," Hopkins said.
"We had a bit of a wobble there during the second half and obviously it was a big loss losing Casey.
"It was quite a bad challenge on her. We weren't too happy about that.
"Then to concede a goal right after she went off made us a little bit nervous for 10 or 15 minutes or so."
Newcastle coach Ash Wilson was disappointed with conceding three goals from set pieces - and five in total for the second consecutive week - but praised her players' fight in the second half.
"At half-time it was a little bit colourful," Wilson said.
"They needed to show character when they came out in the second half, which I think that they did, and there was a good patch of time there where we were dominating.
"Even at 4-2 down we felt we could get a draw or possibly even a win ... but the start can't happen like that."
Australian Associated Press
