Leckie goal can give Melbourne momentum

Defending A League Men champions Melbourne City are seeking to generate momentum after prize recruit Mathew Leckie opened his account for the club.

Their attack sizzled in a 4-2 away win over Newcastle on Tuesday.

In-from Jamie Maclaren scored a second half brace, Leckie netted his first Australian league goal since February 2011 and former Jet Andrew Nabbout also posed problems for the home defence.

With playmaker Florin Berenguer pulling the strings and Connor Metcalfe and Aiden O'Neill bossing the midfield and feeding the attack, City looked sharp.

Socceroo stalwart Leckie went close with a couple of shots early in the game before he hit the target off a Maclaren pass in the 56th minute in his eighth ALM game for City.

"We need to be a little bit patient," said City assistant coach Petr Kratky who was in charge of the team on Tuesday, as head coach Patrick Kisnorbo couldn't attend after returning a positive COVID test earlier in the day

"But he (Leckie) is a very good quality player and hopefully he'll just keep scoring for us and give us attacking force."

Nabbout said it was always going to take time for City's attack to fully hit their straps as they worked to integrate Leckie.

"Obviously Lecks coming in, he has come from a completely different game plan in Germany and like anything it takes time to gel," Nabbout told Paramount Plus.

"We've finally started clicking."

Kratky, who will also be in charge for Friday's away game against Western Sydney, wanted to build on the momentum of Tuesday's win which lifted City four places to second.

They haven't had back-to-back victories this season and had won just one of their last five games before Tuesday and were coming off a loss to Western United.

"We hope we can make