Newcastle Knights show fighting qualities to deny desperate Sea Eagles and close in on finals spot

That's the position the Knights find themselves in after twice coming from behind to snuff out a desperate Manly at McDonald Jones Stadium yesterday.

The 26-24 win leaves Newcastle a point outside the top four. Significantly, they have put five points between themselves and ninth-placed Wests Tigers with six rounds left.

Judging the quality of yesterday's win depends on your outlook.

For the glass half empty critics, it was another game the Knights struggled to win despite going in as a red hot favourite. A game against a team below them on the ladder playing without their best player and their two starting frontrowers and coming off four losses from their last six matches.

But the glass half full brigade will argue they can't remember the last time a Knights side showed the sort of character and resilience needed to fight back from deficits on two occasions and win a game after giving the opposition, who were effectively playing for their season, a 12-point head start.

Truth is there was a lot to like about the performance. The fightback, the work ethic of David Klemmer, Mitch Barnett and Kurt Mann in the pack, the continued rise of young centre Enari Tuala, the whole-heartedness of halfback Mitchell Pearce and the special moments provided by Kalyn Ponga. All were big positives.

But there is also plenty to improve on. The slow start that gave Manly a sniff for one but also some costly defensive lapses and poor tackle contact that will no doubt get an airing during coach Adam O'Brien's video review this week.

So too will the at-times frantic nature of Newcastle's attack that led to errors. With teams now employing a rushing up-and-in defence against the Knights in a bid to stifle the Ponga threat out the back, a composed plan to combat it is going to be needed against the premiership heavyweights.

Skipper Pearce knows better than anyone his side needs to keep evolving and finding improvement but he took plenty of positives from the fighting qualities his side showed against Manly.

"Manly were playing for their lives today and I thought they threw a lot at us," Pearce told the Newcastle Herald.

"But we came up with the moments to win the game and that's what the good sides do. We were really challenged and I thought we showed some good signs.

"We struggled a bit early but it's how you bounce back and the good teams bounce back and find ways to swing the momentum when it's against you and we did that on a couple of occasions."

Pearce admitted his side has put itself in a strong position to push for the finals and even the top four.

"I think we are in a good spot," he said. "Sure, we need to keep working on some things but we wanted to back up last week's performance which is something we haven't been good at. Now it's about stringing a few back-to-back."

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