A brace from Jeremy Brockie, goals to fellow former Sky Blues players Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Ruben Zadkovich and another to substitute Ali Abbas lifted the Jets into the top six at Sydney's expense.

Trailing 3-0 at half-time, Sydney mounted a fightback with second half goals to Hiro Moriyasu and Michael Beauchamp but it couldn't prevent a loss which dealt a significant blow to its finals aspirations.

Sydney players had spoken of their desire to send Lavicka out a winner after the club announced on Friday the Czech could would be departing at season's end by mutual consent.

But there was little evidence of that motivation as Sydney continued its trend of slow starts in front of 10,232 fans at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Meanwhile, Jim Magilton is now without a win in his five matches as Melbourne Victory coach.

Yet the chirpy Northern Irishman is confident his first A-League win is coming _ insisting there were good, positive signs in a 0-0 draw with Melbourne Heart at AAMI Park on Saturday night. Magilton's team had no answers for a rampant Heart in the opening half.

But the Victory was better in the second half and looked to have momentum, until midfielder Grant Brebner's send-off with 15 minutes remaining turned the match into a scrap for survival.

Whether Magilton can shore up his future beyond a contract which runs until the end of the A-League season remains as unclear as when he arrived last month.

So far in his tenure, Victory has managed four draws and a loss and remains outside the top six.

Victory faces a tough task to give Magilton his maiden victory in its next match _ a clash with competition leader Central Coast Mariners at AAMI Park on Friday night.