Two goals from Bruno Fornaroli was enough for City to claim three points and see it climb to second on the A-League table.

Despite an early scare in the first few minutes where Morten Norstrand missed from point blank range, the Dutchman said the game was played on his terms.

“Overall we controlled the game. There were period in the first half that were open and we gave away some space,” Van’t Schip said.

“They had two good opportunities but of course we had two goals and another good opportunity with Bruno.

“In the first half going up 2-1 was deserved. The second half we controlled the game and we could have scored if we were a bit more precise and maybe a bit more eager in the final third – we could have scored one or two other goals.”

Right-back Ivan Franjic played a full game after recovering from his heart problems while Anthony Caceres filled in the shoes of Socceroo Luke Brattan.

Heading to the break with the score at 2-1, van’t Schip stressed City did plan to play cautiously in the second half.

“I think it had nothing to do with it (cautious approach). It was the situation and circumstances that we were in during the first half,” he said.

“There were two or three balls over the top as a last line we were not defending at the same level. They [Newcastle] caused us some problems when they went in behind our defence and crossed – the first one was a big chance for (Morten) Nordstrand."

“After that I think we played some good football. The things we asked from the boys in training – we scored two goals – we’ve been working on. It’s always nice you see that in the game with crosses and good goals from Bruno.

“The second half we could have made more profit of the possession that we had. We have to be a bit sharper in front of goal and with our last pass.

“It got a bit shaky at the end but I think the boys played well. We had a lot of possession and some other plays came on the pitch. Luke (Brattan) was not there today, Anthony (Caceres) and Osama (Malik) did a good job coming into the team.”

City travel to Western Sydney to meet the Wanderers next week.