Jordan have embarrassed Australia by taking top spot in their World Cup qualifying group with an impressive 2-0 victory in Amman.

A penalty early in the second-half from the defender Hasan Abdel Fattah, after Matt Spiranovic was judged to have brought down midfielder Hamza al Dardour, gave Jordan the lead. The home team held off the Socceroos and then Al-Dardour struck in the 84th minute to secure the win.

The win sees Jordan move top of Group B with 10 points, one point above the Socceroos, thanks to three victories and a draw.

The defeat is a major setback for Australia, who had looked mostly untroubled in their first three qualifiers against Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh and Tajikistan. This was also Australia’s first defeat since South Korea beat them in the Asian Cup in January, and comes three years after Jordan also upset the Socceroos 2-1 in Amman.

Ange Postecoglou described the 2-0 defeat as disappointing but said his players will learn from it. The manager added: “We conceded a really bad goal and when you go down a goal in games like this it’s very hard to get any rhythm. It gets a bit frustrating for the players and I guess in the end it was just too big a task for us to get that goal back.

“I thought we were OK in the first half, I thought we were relatively in control. I was hoping we could push on the second half as they’d worked really hard. Once that goal goes in the game really stops and starts, we don’t get a chance to sort of move them around.

“They used every advantage they could, which is fair enough. We had some chances but we didn’t take them.”

Postecoglou said Australia’s mission to qualify for the 2018 World Cup is still in their own hands with four games remaining. “We’re not the finished product and I never said we are,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of improvement in us. I’m not going to throw the baby out with the bath water, it’s one loss, one disappointing result.

“But I still firmly believe we’re on the right track. We’ve got some home games to come, including against Jordan, so the task is still in our hands.”

Postecoglou’s team lined up in a 4-3-3 formation, the captain Tim Cahill on the bench and Bailey Wright again partnering Matthew Spiranovic in defence.

The Socceroos started brightly in the first half, the playmaker Tom Rogic almost opening the scoring barely a minute in with a shot from outside the box that was well-saved by Amer Shafi.

On 14 minutes Tom Oar cut inside his marker and shot straight at Shafi. But Jordan started to come back into the game and built some pressure. They launched attacks from deep, opening Australia up from the flanks after 35 minutes. Yaseen Bakheet had a great opportunity, after the ball was cut through the middle of the Australian box, but he blazed wide.

A minute later Matthew Leckie should have scored after a double attempt, set up by a wonderful cross from Oar. But Shafi pulled off two rapid saves to thwart the Australia forward.

As the half petered out a goalpost saved the Socceroo’s blushes. Bakheet got the ball in space, turned Jason Davidson inside out and cut it back to Al-Dardour, whose shot cannoned off a post much to Adam Federici’s relief.

However, the match sparked to life in the second half as Jordan were quickly awarded a penalty. Aldaradreh got around Matt Spiranovic, got a shot off that was pushed wide but he was fouled in the process. Hasan stepped up to slam the ball from the spot and give the home team a 1-0 lead.

Nathan Burns had replaced Oar at the break as the Socceroos looked for more cutting edge in attack. Jordan surged forward, closing the Australians down at pace with the animated crowd spurring them on. The goal gave Al-Nashama huge confidence and Australia was rattled.

Postecoglou brought on Cahill for Rogic after 66 minutes as the Socceroos desperately looked for an equaliser. Aaron Mooy had his first shot from a free-kick blocked by the wall while Shafi was there to save his second attempt.

With 15 minutes left Australia threw caution to the wind and took Wright off for striker Tomi Juric, moving to three-man defence. Cahill had a goal-bound header palmed away and the Jordanians had a number of players down with injury as the clock wound down.

Hamza finished off Australia with six minutes left, poor defending allowing him time and space in the box and he coolly slotted past Federici.