The Heart scored the first three goals inside 53 minutes at AAMI Park against the two-time defending champion Brisbane Roar, and then the Mariners won 2-0 at Parramatta Stadium over the Western Sydney Wanderers.
The Heart replaced the Roar in sixth position with the 3-2 victory but there were plenty of scares in the second half despite the home side leading 3-0. Striker David Williams was given a red card in the 67th minute.
Roar striker Besart Berisha had a purple patch with a penalty goal in the 74th minute and then scoring a second just two minutes later to give Brisbane plenty of time to either level scores, or go ahead. However, the Heart held firm to record the important win.
They set up the win in the first 53 minutes with a goal to Williams in the 13th minute, to Josip Tadic in the 35th and then Fred in the 53rd.
Heart coach John Aloisi was thrilled with his side's climb into the top six, and believes two successive wins could prove a season turning point but he was far from happy with the performance of referee Alan Milliner.
"We couldn't grind out a game before these last two. People questioned the players' character and if they could do it. Today they showed they can," Aloisi said.
"In the second half in my opinion the referee lost the game a little bit and made it difficult because he just lost control of it. Sometimes he was giving a yellow card for no reason, and he starts to lose control giving little, cheap fouls that weren't really fouls."
New Roar coach Mike Mulvey, whose team had won back-to-back matches before the Heart defeat, took responsibility, saying a late system change had not worked.
"I changed the system before the game," Mulvey said.
"We worked on that during the week, and it didn't quite work. Mainly because we had Berisha isolated on the left and he's far more dangerous centrally, as we saw in the second half."
The Mariners might not have controlled their match at Parramatta Stadium as much as the 2-0 scoreline suggests, but in the end the victory moves Central Coast four points clear on top of the A-League.
Daniel McBreen continued his outstanding season scoring both of the Mariners goals to move to 12 for the season to remain two clear of Melbourne Victory's Marco Rojas and Wellington Phoenix's Jeremy Brockie.
Central Coast coach Graham Arnold was delighted to come away from playing in front of 16,387 fans at Parramatta Stadium with full points, and is especially happy with where his side is positioned with such a good run of games at home to come.
"I thought it was a good performance in trying conditions. It was a little bit disappointing that we didn’t go for the jugular a bit more when they went down to 10 men, and we gave them some chances, but we had five or six good chances to kill the game off and it wasn’t until the 93rd minute that we got the second," Arnold said.
"Overall I'm happy to come down here to an intimidating place with a wonderful crowd and in a real football atmosphere, to get the three points is great. What makes me even happier is that we've only played six games at home and nine away, and have seven of our last 11 games at home."
Wanderers coach Tony Popovic said coming up against the front runners was a good yardstick for his side.
"When you're playing the league leaders you have to make the most of those limited opportunities because you don't get many," Popovic said.
"They're obviously a very good side and they've been in very good form so it was good to see where we're at and I thought we handled it very well. When we were down to 10 men the boys just kept going so I can't be disappointed at all."