he Penrith Panthers pulled off an incredible comeback against the Newcastle Knights, with Nathan Cleary kicking two field goals to give his side a one point victory.
Penrith performed well-below their expected average throughout the contest, conceding a handful of uncharacteristic penalties whilst struggling to maintain possession.
With the minutes ticking away, Knights half Tyson Gamble looked to have secured the Knights the win when he slotted a clutch field goal, leaving the Panthers with just three minutes to level the score.
The Panthers regained possession from the following kick-off and laid the platform for Cleary to kick a perfect field goal to level the scores before kicking another to win the game in golden point.
The win was a scrappy one for the Panthers and one that coach Ivan Cleary saw plenty of points of improvement for the reigning premiers.
“I don’t want to be disrespectful to the Knights but it probably was (our worst performance of the season),” Cleary said post-game.
“We haven’t really played badly and the games we’ve lost it hasn’t been clicking but we haven’t played badly.
“But tonight, lots of stuff we did we’re not happy with but credit to the Knights because they put us under pressure and put us in that space.
“I wasn’t (confident we were going to win). We didn’t start well and they did, so they put us under pressure and they were on top in that first half.
“They opened the door a few times in that second half and we didn’t do much with it but just kept plugging away and that’s what I’m most happy with, we just kept on coming and in the end just got there.”
The Panthers moved themselves to within two points of competition leaders the Broncos and will have a chance to go into the first when they face the Rabbitohs next weekend.
