IT'S not often that a win on home turf against the NRL's last-placed team is a cause for celebration.
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But in the case of the Newcastle Knights, there was a palpable sense of relief among the 27,424-strong crowd at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday after the home-team's hard-fought 34-26 victory against Parramatta, which was timely on several fronts.
For starters, the win ended a three-game losing streak and lifted Newcastle to 10th on the points table, within striking distance of the top eight. Even better, it exorcised any lingering demons after the Knights had lost their previous six games against the Eels.
And while Parramatta have endured a troubled campaign that recently cost long-serving coach Brad Arthur his job, big guns Mitchell Moses, Clint Gutherson, Junior Paulo, Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Dylan Brown and Maika Sivo were all on deck against Newcastle, and played well enough to beat plenty of teams.
Instead the Knights, without injured regulars Kalyn Ponga, Tyson Gamble, Leo Thompson and Dylan Lucas, got the job done.
"At the end of the day, we needed a win and the boys found a way, so I'm stoked," Knights coach Adam O'Brien said.
With nine regular-season games to play, Newcastle are in a better position than they were at the corresponding stage of last year, when they proceeded to qualify fifth in the play-offs.
But they are still a long way from home and O'Brien is clearly taking nothing for granted.
"We needed to win this one, and I'll let the boys enjoy that," O'Brien said.
"We know that we're coming down to Canberra to play a tough footy team [on Sunday], and I know their coach will get them ready to play against us, so we need to do the same.
"But for right now, I want them to enjoy that.
"I know how much it means for them to win in front of that crowd."
The highlight of Newcastle's seventh win of the season was the NRL debut of English import Will Pryce, who marked the occasion with a try in front of his emotional parents, who had flown out from the UK for the occasion.
No less impressive was centre Bradman Best, who scored two runaway tries and carried the ball a remarkable 357 metres, in the perfect response to being overlooked for the NSW side for Origin II last week.
After back-to-back standout games against premiers Penrith and the Eels, Best is surely next in line should Blues coach Michael Maguire suffer any injuries to his outside backs before the interstate-series decider.
Best's two tries, scored in the 72nd and 78th minutes, were enough to keep Parramatta at bay.
