Newcastle has helped Melbourne to maintain its stranglehold of the A-League premiership with a 1-0 upset of second-placed Queensland at Suncorp Stadium.

The Jets grabbed their second straight victory of the season, after going winless through the entire first round, thanks to a booming first-half strike by Vaughan Coveny.

Coveny launched a sweetly-timed shot from just inside the penalty area past Roar goalkeeper Tom Willis in the 35th minute after he won the ball from defender Sasa Ognenovski.

It was the first goal Queensland had conceded at home this season and it left the Roar nine points behind pacesetter Melbourne, who beat Sydney FC 2-1 on Saturday night.

It was a deserved win for Newcastle who held the momentum for the rest of the match and went close to putting it beyond the home side with a series of second-half misses, several from dangerous import Milton Rodriguez.

The Roar attacked frantically, often without any strategy, in the last 10 minutes but the Jets defence scrambled well.

The result continued the bizarre away anomaly between the two clubs since the A-League kicked off last season as the home team has never won.

The one-goal result did fly in the face of their recent history in one respect - the last two matches having seen a flurry of 10 goals in total with the Roar winning 5-0 and 3-2.

The Jets came into the ninth-round clash missing captain Paul Okon due to a calf strain.

Queensland had its own setback during the warm-up when classy Scottish striker Simon Lynch twinged his hamstring and had to be replaced by Dario Vidosic.

Apart from Coveny's deadly strike, the Roar had more of the running in the first half and looked the better side until then.

Stand-in Jets skipper Nicky Carle did produce the first worrying sign for the home side though in the 11th minute with a dangerous attempt that required a diving save by Willis.

Ante Milicic, needing only to beat keeper Ben Kennedy, hit the woodwork for the Roar eight minutes later following a classy through-ball by fellow striker Reinaldo.

Reinaldo failed to do any better with his own chance from a Milicic pass in the 31st minute when he toe-poked over the cross-bar after defender Paul Kohler made a hash of a clean-up attempt.

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