The Newcastle Knights did just enough to thwart a hungry St George Illawarra Dragons side, with coach Justin Holbrook just "happy to win" in a match which saw the Red V compete for a victory right until the final whistle. 

The Knights jumped out to a 12-0 lead, but the Dragons managed to weather the early storm and fight their way back into the game to fall just short in a 22-20 loss.

Dragons halfback Kyle Flanagan had the chance to win the game after support from a Daniel Atkinson bomb, but failed to maintain possession over the line. 

Holbrook was full of praise for the brave Dragons outfit, who pushed the Knights to the very end on their road trip to the Hunter, but also gave credit to his own inexperienced troops who stepped up. 

"Just obviously happy to win, that's obvious," Holbrook said in his post-match press conference.
 
"Yeah, it started really well at 12-0 and credit the Dragons. I thought we probably dropped a gear and they lifted and the last month they've played really well and pushed us all the way to the end. But yeah, look, happy to get the win.
 
"It's a tricky time the Origin time. We have two players at 48 hours so we don't back them up, and they (Dragons) don't have Origin players in, so that's fine but we (had) a few disrupted players but good signs."
 
Newcastle forwards Thomas Cant, Francis Manuleleua, and Cody Hopwood rolled up their sleeves and got through a mountain of work in the Knights pack.
 

"We had Thomas Cant playing 80 minutes, Francis (Manuleleua) playing massive minutes, Cody Hopwood playing big minutes. They all haven't been playing much NRL this year, so there was plenty of good signs for us."

Holbrook commended Fletcher Sharpe's ability to slide in at fullback for the rested Kalyn Ponga, who he and teammate Dylan Lucas came head-to-head in Game 2 of the State of Origin fixture on Wednesday. 

He also gave flowers to Sandon Smith, whose golden boot ended up being the difference in the match, slotting 5/5 goals.

“(Sharpe's) back to his best now, which is great. We've got the luxury of resting Kalyn and having him move back there," he said

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“He's been great whether he's playing five-eighth or fullback for us, and I thought Sandon Smith competed hard to get to our own kick to score that try, and slotted all his goals.”

Newcastle Knights skipper Tyson Frizell was happy to come away with the two points despite the ugly win, but insisted that these are important lessons that the club will be thankful for down the track in September. 

“These are the games you've got to win at the back end of the year, but credit to the Dragons. They were pretty good today, we were only off on a couple of little areas today, missed the scraps in terms of kicks," Frizell said.

“It's good for us to be able to scrape past with those wins."

The veteran Knights forward is now keen to ramp up the momentum for a strong finish.

“Hopefully, we can start to build a bit of rhythm there," he said. 

“We've sort of had a stop-start kind of middle of the season, with a few byes and Origin and things like that too, so for us it's like starting a new season and a run of 11 games straight. 

“It's a good starting point again, everyone's starting to build, everyone's starting to play some good footy, so we need to be improving. 

“Obviously, it's not our perfect game, but we'll be better for it next week.” 

The Knights sit in third place until Saturday night, when the Manly Sea Eagles have the opportunity to overtake them if they win against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.

The Wests Tigers will travel to the Hunter to face the Knights next, with the novacastrians enjoying a long turnaround and going into battle on Sunday week.