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With new coach Carl Robinson in the stands, Newcastle ended a seven-game winless run with a scrappy 4-3 victory in the wet over Central Coast in the A-League.

When it rains, it pours.

And Newcastle may just have opened the floodgates after finally ending a nine-game winless drought with a scrappy 4-3 A-League derby win over Central Coast.

Torrential rain threatened to postpone the McDonald Jones Stadium clash, with officials only giving the green light just prior to kick-off.

And it was the Jets who adapted to the trying conditions best led by a pressure-relieving brace from key man Dimi Petratos.

Nikolai Topor-Stanley also scored, while Mariners defender Kim Eun-Sun's own goal provided the fourth in their highest-scoring game of the season.

Newcastle entered the match with just five goals since their last win in November.

But with new coach Carl Robinson in the stands and buoyed by a reunion with Roy O'Donovan, the Jets turned in arguably their best effort of the season.

And it just might be the catalyst that lifts them off the bottom of the ladder.

"We'd been waiting a while. It's what we need to turn that corner and start working our way up the ladder," interim coach Craig Deans said.

"Hopefully it's just the start of a strong finish to the season."

For the Mariners, who scored through Ruon Tongyik, Jack Clisby and Chris Harold, the loss was their sixth in seven games and it heaped pressure on coach Alen Stajcic.

Central Coast are now only ahead of last-placed Newcastle on goal difference.

"I think the scoreline flattered us a little bit to be honest," Stajcic said.

"We showed a lot of good qualities, the spirit to stay in the game, the strength, fighting to the end, which is all good qualities.

"But certainly the football qualities of passing, movement and controlling the game was more in their territory today."

Stajcic made four changes to the side that dropped their third game in succession last week, two of them forced by injury.

However that failed to prevent an early deficit, with Petratos powering a 15th-minute Abdiel Arroyo header into the top corner.

In doing so, he became just the third Jets player to notch 20 goals.

A blowout loomed when Topor-Stanley shrugged off Kye Rowles 10 minutes later, only for Ruon Tongyik to half the lead.

Substituted in following an injury to Rowles, Tongyik nodded home a Clisby corner to claim the first A-League goal of his career.

Most in the 4,151 crowd then fell silent when a Milan Duric free kick found an unmarked Clisby at the far post to level.

But the Jets' quick-fire response all but sealed the win.

First Petratos drilled home with his right after having a left-footed shot blocked in the 53rd minute before Kim Eun-Sun's own goal restored their two-goal buffer.

The contest petered out before Harold, in his club debut, made the most of a poor Lewis Italiano clearance to curl an effort home in the 85th minute.