Panthers coach Ivan Cleary has ruthlessly called his side’s golden point win over the Knights on Saturday night their worst performance of the season.
Penrith were uncharacteristically sloppy in Newcastle, making 13 errors, conceding nine penalties and missing 18 tackles, while completing at just 71 per cent.
Cleary was told his son Nathan had described their performance as their worst in 2023 and he agreed.
“I don’t want to be disrespectful to the Knights but it probably was,” Cleary said.
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“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.”
Penrith Panthers Press Conference | 05:49
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Penrith skipper Isaah Yeo echoed the sentiment and admitted his side were lucky to escape with the win.
“Just errors and compounding penalties and six agains put us on the back foot, so we didn’t have a lot of ball and when we got down there we were trying to score too quick and just looking for things that weren’t there,” Yeo said.
“Discipline was keeping them on top… but we were able to scratch out a win.”
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