Both sides had a stuttering opening 10 minutes, in which a sopping Allianz Stadium surface served to scupper rather than excite. 

But when Newcastle got going, they never let up. Dimitri Petratos opened the scoring with a strong curling effort, given acres of space by an often hopeless Wanderers defence.

Jason Hoffman quickly added another after some smart build-up play from Petratos, before the Jets ran rampant throughout the remainder - notching killer blows through a Roy O'Donovan brace and classy Mathew Ridenton finish.

"We've had a bad spell but tonight we took our chances and never looked back," O'Donovan said.

"3-0 up at halftime is the magic number, the lads will be disappointed at conceding but it's a positive performance and we move forward.

After Vedran Janjetovic saved O'Donovan's penalty at the cusp of the second half, it was symptomatic of the Wanderers' performance that the Irishman could still tuck away the rebound under little pressure.

"I just hit it as hard as I could, I'm just glad that it fell to me, I'll take any goal."

A sole bright spot among a yawning chasm of darkness for Western Sydney was the introduction of Mitchell Duke, the former Socceroo back in Oz and back in the A-League goalscoring charts after just 18 seconds on the park.

"It is disappointing, you never want to concede five goals, it's humiliating as a professional," Duke said.

"The boys need to get that winning mentality, they're in a rut.

"It's hard to turn around a 5-1 scoreline. There's excitement and adrenaline in coming back home where I'm comfortable, but I've been off for six weeks since i finished in the J-League, so it will take me awhile to get back.

"Hopefully I can help lead the boys."