The Central Coast Mariners gave their semi-final hopes a boost on Saturday with a 4-1 win over the Newcastle Jets at Central Coast Stadium.

A record crowd of 11,612 watched the Mariners first derby victory in four matches against their arch rivals and only their second win at home.

They jumped into fourth place in the A-League, one point behind Newcastle who remain in third.

John Hutchinson scored a double while Andre Gumprecht and Damien Brown rounded out a successful early evening for the home side.

Vaughan Coveny headed a consolation goal for the Jets.

Central Coast made a flying start when Gumprecht smashed a shot past Newcastle goalkeeper Liam Reddy in the fourth minute, after Hutchinson slipped the midfielder a pass down the inside right.

The home side went further ahead on the half-hour mark when left midfielder Damien Brown netted from an acute angle with a free kick.

Brown's curling effort evaded the Newcastle defence and narrowly missed the advancing head of Dean Heffernan, before nestling in the far right corner of the goal.

Hutchinson added his side's third and fourth goals in the 71st minute and 82nd minutes.

His first strike came after gaining possession just inside his half and surging into the box, before scoring with a low left-foot drive.

Substitute Tom Pondeljak crossed for Hutchinson to tap home his second of the match and his sixth goal in as many games.

Newcastle defender Mateo Corbo was sent off for the second time this season when he was given a straight red for a studs-up tackle on Noel Spencer in the 57th minute.

The incident sparked a brief confrontation between opposing coaches Richard Money and Lawrie McKinna.

Money replaced midfielder Richard Johnson in the 61st minute with Jobe Wheelhouse.

Johnson had struggled throughout the match, after taking a knock early in the first half.

Central Coast defender Paul O'Grady made his debut after a long injury lay-off, replacing Andrew Clark at half time.

Clark had been suffering from a virus during the week.

Central Coast coach Lawrie McKinna said the victory was not his side's best performance.

"In patches we played some great stuff," he said.

"We controlled the game really well in the first half. We handled the heat a lot better than they did."

Newcastle coach Richard Money said it was his side's poorest performance.

"We never got started from the first whistle," Money said.

"It is just one game and we're still third. We've now lost two in a row so next week's game against Sydney becomes even more important.

"Every time we've had a setback we've responded and I'm sure well do the same next week.

"I don't think we can blame the heat. They were much sharper."

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