Perth Glory are gaining on Melbourne City at the top of the A-League Women ladder after Millie Farrow's brace sealed a 2-1 defeat of the Central Coast Mariners.
In Sunday's second game, the Newcastle Jets fought back for a 3-1 win over Adelaide United, who lost one-time Matildas representative Dylan Holmes to head-knock concerns.
Second-placed Perth, who had won only one of five games before New Year's Eve, are now one victory away from ladder-leading City and a chance to reclaim top spot.
The Mariners had 13 more shots on target than their rivals, but an early Taren King error meant they were playing catch-up all afternoon in Gosford.
Under pressure from Perth's Grace Jale, Mariners defender King mistimed a pass across the face of goal and instead tapped the ball to Farrow.
The 27-year-old's goal put Perth up 1-0 after only six minutes and broke the Glory's 205-minute scoring drought.
After the break, Farrow caught the Mariners' defence napping again, afforded too much space in the box before heading Natasha Rigby's cross into the net.
Perth's high press troubled the Mariners in the first half, but the hosts eventually found an in-road into the final third down the right wing.
American forward Rola Badawiya looked likeliest and thought she had a second-half equaliser.
But Kate Jacewicz, refereeing her 100th ALW game, called Paige Hayward offside in the lead-up to the would-be goal and left the Mariners to continue their search.
Only three minutes after Farrow scored her second, Badawiya finally had the better of mighty goalkeeper Morgan Aquino with a long ball from the edge of the box.
But despite looking the better team for most of the second half and with a glut of late chances, Central Coast could not find an equaliser.
The Jets moved to within one point of the top four with a victory in Newcastle that ended the Reds' two-game winning streak.
Holmes managed to press on after teammate Mariah Lee accidentally kicked the ball into her head, though not before play stopped for eight minutes as medical staff attended the midfielder.
The 26-year-old came off worse for wear after attempting a header on goal just before the break and staggered from the field.
Earlier, the Jets scored back-to-back goals in the space of five minutes to erase the lead that Holmes had given the visitors against the run of play.
Only five minutes after Adelaide's goal, talismanic Swiss national Lorena Baumann sent a high cross to Libby Copus-Brown, who equalised for the Jets in the 15th minute.
Natasha Prior, who had never scored in the ALW, gave the Jets the lead by thundering the ball through a swarm of defenders and into the net at close range.
Sarina Bolden blew the lead out after a one-on-one with goalkeeper Annalee Grove midway through the second half.
Newcastle's Gema Simon became the sixth woman to reach 150th ALW appearances when she came on from the bench late.
