Knights' win best in two years: Brown

Coach Nathan Brown has labelled Newcastle’s spirited NRL win over Parramatta as the best since taking over the club at the start of last season.

The Knights momentarily lifted themselves from the bottom of the ladder for the first time since March on the back of a mouth-watering display from young five-eighth Brock Lamb.

Asked whether it was his best win since arriving, Brown said: “That’d be a pretty fair statement. It was our first win away from home in 18 or 19 months, however long we’ve been going for.

“We played a team that had won six on the bounce that a lot of people are talking about winning a grand final, and I thought we were clearly the better team.”

Much of that had to do with Lamb, who put the Eels to the slaughter with a try, a field goal, four tackle breaks, two line breaks, two try assists and a line break assist in the 29-10 victory.

Brown showered praise on the 20-year-old for bouncing back after a disappointing period through the middle of the season that included a horror finish against Canterbury in round 18.

“He’s obviously been through a lot as stated a few times, he’s been through some ups and downs and a tough situation,” Brown said.

“But today, he created two tries himself and scored one himself and kicked really well. If (Mitchell) Moses had done that, everyone would say he had a great game.

“So for a young kid, he’s got to understand to do what he did today is a real good game and it’s about being consistent.”

Lamb’s late one-pointer meant the Knights edged past the Wests Tigers into 15th spot with a +1 advantage on points differential before the Tigers face Manly on Sunday.

The Knights also face a difficult finish to the season, with their final three games against Melbourne, Cronulla and Canberra.

“We’re just going to enjoy the fact that we won three in a row, we’ve beat probably the form team in the comp in their own turf,” skipper Jamie Buhrer said.

“We’ve got three games to go against some pretty tough opposition – last year’s premiers, the runner-up and obviously Canberra’s fighting to make the eight.

“If we can emerge out of that without the wooden spoon, I’ll tell you what we’ll have deserved it.”