Kalyn Ponga produced a captain's knock to help Newcastle secure consecutive wins for the first time this year and two crucial competition points as the Knights downed Wests Tigers 34-18 at McDonald Jones Stadium on Friday night.
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Playing his 100th game for the club, Ponga continued his impressive run of form setting up three tries and scoring one of his own as the Knights handed the Tigers their sixth-straight loss in front of 18,470 fans.
Newcastle hadn't won back-to-back games since the opening two rounds of last season and while they invited the Tigers back into the contest on multiple occasions, tries from Ponga, Dom Young and Tyson Gamble in the second half ensured the win.
Placed 14th prior to the match, the result lifts Newcastle into 10th position ahead of the rest of the round's games, one point outside the top eight.
With seven games left to play in the regular season, the Knights now turn their attention to a tough run of fixtures, starting with Melbourne at home on Saturday week followed by the Raiders in Canberra and Dolphins in Perth.
Knights coach Adam O'Brien will be pleased with Friday's result but hardly overjoyed by the scoreline after the Tigers fought back from 18-0 down to trail 22-18 shortly after half-time.
Newcastle had dominated much of the opening 40 minutes, completing at 90 per cent and scoring four tries.
But they only led by a margin of six at the break after Ponga missed three of four conversion attempts and the Tigers scored two tries late in the half.
The Knights were lucky to avoid conceding a try in the opening minute after Tommy Talau burst onto a ball that fullback Jahream Bula batted back from a bomb, only for the video referee to rule it went forward.
The Knights got their first a few minutes later when Greg Marzhew ran in untouched on the left flank, the winger put into space via a Ponga cut-out pass.
Newcastle scored again in the sixth minute off a similar left-side play with Blues Origin hero Bradman Best sliding over the try-line.
Eight minutes later Dominic Young got in on the action scoring Newcastle's third, completing a sideline-to-sideline sweep on the right edge.
Daniel Saifiti made up for two errors midway through the first half by crashing over for his first try of the season in the 25th minute, Newcastle taking an 18-0 lead following the conversion.
The Tigers reduced the deficit to 12 only five minutes later after Bula palmed off Bradman Best to score on the right.
Two minutes out from half-time the visitors scored again after Ponga and Gamble failed to control a Brandon Wakeham kick, allowing Api Koroisau to dive on a loose ball.
Newcastle lost Jack Hetherington three minutes into the second half after he was sent to the sin-bin for slapping Tigers half Will Smith, but it didn't stop them from adding further points when Ponga crossed a few plays later.
The skipper almost had a double a few minutes later but was ruled offside by the video referee.
Bula bagged his second after running into space 25 metres out and scoring between the goalposts in the 51st minute.
Six minutes later, Young grabbed his own double crossing in the right corner from a sweep where Ponga threw the final pass to the winger.
The Englishman nearly had his third 10 minutes later but was deemed to have fumbled the put down.
Gamble crossed with six minutes left to play after putting Young away with a long, floating pass near halfway and then backing up to take a pass from the winger on the inside.
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