Perth Glory beat Newcastle Jets to extend unbeaten A-League run to eight games

Perth veteran Neil Kilkenny converted an opening-minute penalty in a 2-0 win over Newcastle to help stretch Glory's unbeaten start to the A-League season to a historic eighth game.

Jason Davidson also made it onto the scoresheet in Sunday's win over a Jets side who had 21 shots compared to four. The only problem was only six of their attempts were on target.

The Jets also had almost twice as much ball as Perth but were frustrated by what was effectively a five-man defence deployed by coach Tony Popovic.

Newcastle counterpart Ernie Merrick even made the surprise decision to sacrifice defender Ivan Vujica in the 37th minute in a formation change.

But it mattered little in front of a McDonald Jones Stadium crowd of 6,701 as an unyielding Perth defence rarely were seriously troubled in wet conditions.

The win ensures the Glory remain two points clear of Melbourne Victory on top of the table, while Newcastle drop out of the top six into seventh spot.

It also continued Perth's dominance in their match-up, having only lost two of their past 21 against the Jets and remaining undefeated since 2011 in the Hunter.

The win came without captain Diego Castro, who aggravated a hamstring issue.

While Perth slowly squeezed the home side out of the contest, they were repeatedly warned for time wasting.

The start of the match was explosive. Newcastle star Jair should have opened the scoring after 12 seconds but struck his volley straight into Glory gloveman Liam Reddy.

Moments later, Joel Chianese was on a breakaway run and stopped on a dime, only to be brought down by a sliding Glen Moss.

Kilkenny made no mistake from the spot, firing to the bottom right with Moss diving in the opposite direction.

"That shows a lot about the team at the moment in terms of the attacking side where we're always dangerous," Popovic said.

"Keeper's made a great save and yet, at any moment, we feel that in the front third, players can create something and bring about an opportunity for us."

The Jets weren't without opportunities to equalise, with Jair being denied again by Reddy and a third time by the post.

However, the Glory made the most of their chances, doubling their lead when Moss failed to put away a header across his goal.

The ball fell to Davidson, who fired into the top of the net from point-blank range and gave his team a two-goal lead at the break.

Merrick admitted it was also going to be difficult once the Glory went two goals up and put players behind the ball.

"The final pass became frustrating for our players, but you can understand there's eight players in front of them and they'd left two up," he said.

"It's very hard to get past eight players camped on the 18-yard box."