Coach Ivan Cleary conceded Penrith's error-prone 16-15 golden point win over a spirited Newcastle amounted to their worst performance of the season but praised the Panthers' resilience after his son Nathan sealed victory with two field goals.
With the score 14-14 in the final four minutes, Newcastle's back-up five-eighth Tyson Gamble nailed a field goal from long range only seconds after Nathan Cleary had sprayed his own attempt under the crossbar.
Lachlan Fitzgibbon hit Cleary late as the Panthers co-captain drilled his second attempt over the black dot but was inexplicably not penalised, the game instead moving into golden point with the scores locked at 15-15 after 80 minutes.
Coach Cleary would not be drawn to comment on the non-call.
"We've all got views but we don't want to turn (them) into a headline. We're happy to get the win and move on," he said.
A mere 40 seconds into extra time, Nathan Cleary made no mistake on his fourth shot of the night and the Panthers were home despite making 13 errors and the Knights scoring three tries to two.
"I don't want to be disrespectful to the Knights but it probably is (our worst performance)," he said.
"But having said that, we haven't really played badly in the games we've lost.
"We didn't start well and they did. They certainly put us under pressure.
"We just sort of kept plugging away, that's what I'm obviously most happy with, just the fact that we kept on coming and in the end just got there."
The Knights, tipped for the wooden spoon before the start of the season, beat the reigning premiers at their own game in the first half but a monumental upset was not to be.
"You can see that there's a group in there that's really, really disappointed," coach Adam O'Brien said.
"They put a hell of a lot of effort in, especially defensively.
"We've just been gradually improving in little areas. We don't want to let this loss or the disappointment derail that improvement."
Despite missing co-captains Jayden Brailey and Kalyn Ponga, Newcastle completed all of their first 10 sets and muscled on their goal line, all the while poking holes in Penrith's usually tight defensive wall.
Penrith bled three tries at close range in the first half - more than they have conceded in any game since before last year's finals series.
The Panthers' attacking exuberance from the past fortnight was nowhere to be seen.
It took Knights veteran Dane Gagai backchatting the referee and conceding a penalty for the Panthers to march into Knights territory and score for the first time through Brian To'o.
But the ascendancy was to be short-lived.
The Knights had the Panthers rattled, forcing them into errors in good field position.
Errant handling in the red zone cost Penrith four times in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
The difference in the second half was that Newcastle were mistake-prone as well and put Penrith in position to score again with another avoidable penalty.
A minute after Tyson Frizell pulled Jarome Luai's hair in a tackle, the Panthers were over through interchange forward Jaeman Salmon.
In extra time, Panthers snuck home and denied what would have been a famous victory for the Knights, who can take considerable confidence out of the loss.
Newcastle were outplayed 42-6 in the corresponding fixture last season but are clearly made of sterner stuff this year.
Representative back-rower Liam Martin failed to complete the game for Penrith, succumbing to the hamstring injury that has ruled him out for the past month.
