It was a do-or-die clash for the NYC Knights on Sunday against the table topping Penrith Panthers.
With only four games left to play in the home and away season, the young red and blues needed a win to get their chase for a finals berth back on track.
Following a fantastic 38-24 win over the Panthers, the team was in high spirits following the game.
“We’ve had a dry spot and haven’t won any games lately, but we stuck it out there for 80 minutes today,” fullback Nick Meaney told Knights TV.
Meaney had an outstanding game, scoring the first try for the Knights and making 144 metres from 12 runs.
On top of that he broke out of eight tackles and made three line breaks, proving too quick and strong for a Panthers side that has only lost one game all season.
“They were very aggressive, you can tell why they’re the top dogs,” Meaney added.
“We just really wanted to get back to what we were at the start of the year, when we were really aggressive playing backwards and forwards with other teams and in the past few weeks we haven’t really been doing that.”
Coach Todd Lowrey was effusive in his praise of the young side that snapped a six game losing streak to now only be three points out of the top eight.
“The boys stuck to what we’ve talked about doing, more so than other games recently,” he explained.
“They stuck to what we trained to do during the week, so I’m really proud of them.”
The Knights went out to play attacking football from the get-go, and it was an exciting match to watch.
“It certainly was a must win match for us, and we had nothing to lose I guess,” Lowrey said.
“So we came out and the plan was to throw the footy around a little bit. We did that, and fortunately we were good enough to get the better of them.
“There were some guys who had really good games, but in a tough win like that it would unfair to single anybody out. They all tried really hard and got the result they were looking for.”
This Saturday the NYC Knights will take on the eighth-placed Gold Coast Titans at Hunter Stadium.
