Coach Wayne Bennett said his young players were 'outstanding' in the Newcastle Knights four-point win over the Sydney Roosters.
The Knights had a young backline after losing Darius Boyd, Akuila Uate and James McManus in the lead up to the Round 20 clash at Hunter Stadium.
Two debutantes in brothers Sione and Chanel Mata'utia and rookie Jake Mamo made up the new-look back three.
"Sione, Chanel, Jake, they were outstanding against a quality football team here tonight," Bennett said.
"Young Adam (Clydsdale) was great at hooker, (Dane) Gags ended up at five-eighth, he used to be a winger once, now he is a five-eighth (said with a grin).
"Tyrone, I think the stint at hooker helped him, he had a lot more confidence about him... and I thought tonight was going to be his night, all the indicators were there."
Beau Scott, who captained the Knights in the second half due to Jarrod Mullen's abdominal injury, echoed the sentiments of his coach.
"We knew we were up against a quality football team, they are premiers for a reason," Scott explained.
"As Wayne said, we had three young kids at the back who did a terrific job for us.
"It was great to get the win for the people that sit out in the grandstands and come and support us."
Sione, the youngest of the four Mata'utia brothers, had a horror welcome to NRL after an unfavourable bounce led to the Roosters' opening try.
"It was a tough start to Sione's NRL career but he showed how mature he is to bounce back from that and finish the game how he did," Scott admitted.
After the less than ideal start for the home side, the coach hailed the victory as the Club's best of the season.
"We had a terrible start... but fought to get back into it and dominated the second half," Bennett said after the game.
"Today was the best win of the season.
"Really tonight was for Alex (McKinnon), we were a week late and we owed the fans as well, who we had let down.
"We had nine NRL players missing tonight, it was a huge effort... and we lost Jarrod at half time, I couldn't be more proud of them."
Mullen was the main injury concern out of the match, with an abdominal strain. He will have scans before the extent of his injury is known.
