With a seventh straight home ground victory up for grabs the Newcastle Knights continued rebuilding the EnergyAustralia Stadium fortress this afternoon, holding out a strong finishing New Zealand Warriors to remain in the NRL top eight.

On a day the home side couldn’t buy a penalty, the Knights dug deep to defend eight straight sets on their line late in the second half, walking away with a two point win and vital competition points.

“I thought we did enough to win the game by a bit more but the Warriors did what they generally do and kept at it so it became quite a close contest at the back end and a nail biter in the last few minutes,” said Coach, Brian Smith.

Melba Studios © Newcastle Knights

Richard Fa'aoso

It was as much a physiological victory as a physical one with the Warriors becoming a bogey team of sorts for the Knights in recent seasons, scoring late and narrow victories over the Novocastrians.

Smith said today’s win was hard fought after defending for relentless sets.

“Today it’s on the back of a five nil penalty count against us in the second half so the Warriors are certainly in favour with the refs.”

The majority of the first 40 was played in the Knights half and as Jarrod Mullen began his warm up five minutes out from half time James McManus was heading for the corner when Kurt Gidley stayed alive, bouncing the ball back to Isaac De Gois.

Melba Studios © Newcastle Knights

Jarrod Mullen

It was looking like the locals would go into the sheds with a 10 – 6 lead until Mullen injected himself into the Knights attack, going to the air with just his third touch to put McManus over for his second try.

Both sides emerged looking to spread wide and the tactics payed off for the New Zealanders, back in the hunt and beginning a see sawing second half.

When Keith Lulia dived on a Mullen missile near the north-west corner the Knights were back with a comfortable buffer but it wasn’t the best day for Kurt Gidley with the boot, keeping the Warriors just six points in arrears with 20 minutes on the clock.

But Gidley had another chance soon after on the back of a brilliant try off broken play – Mullen was caught short but refused to give in, jumping to his feet to offload and send Chris Houston over for a 24 – 12 lead.

The vocal 13,626 strong crowd let the men in the middle know their thoughts about a run of controversial decisions, particularly when referee Gavin Badger went upstairs unsure if the Warriors had scored, only to award a four pointer on a refs call.

Melba Studios © Newcastle Knights

Zeb Taia

Fortunately the home side was able to hold out their run against the whistle to sneak home in a thrilling finish ahead of next week’s tough assignment against St George Illawarra at Jubilee Oval.

In other results a great win to the NYC Knights, defeating the Warriors 22 – 16 in today’s curtain raiser.

And in the Junior Representative matches the Knights Harold Matthews team posted a 30 points to 12 victory over Balmain.

The SG Ball Knights were unable to continue their winning streak, falling just short of the mark for a 28 – 22 loss against the Tigers.

To watch this afternoon’s post match media conference online see related articles below or visit the audio / video section on the home page.