After establishing healthy leads at points in Sunday's match, the Newcastle Knights were left to rue a missed opportunity after going down by two-points to the Cronulla Sharks.
While the disappointing result adds to the Knights’ season woes, coach Rick Stone saw strong flashes of hope in his side.
“I think we did a lot of good things today and controlled the ball pretty well,” he said in the post match press conference.
“The lapses in concentration defensively off the back of penalties really hurt us.
“There were probably four tries out of the five that were off the back of concentration errors.
“That’s the biggest thing for us. Cronulla put on some smart tries but that's not good enough for us in that area.
“The biggest disappointment for me was that we defended pretty well in the last 20 minutes, but in the 10 minutes prior to that, it was too soft.
“There wasn’t enough desperation, talk and concentration and they are all the particular things you need to be a good defensive side in the NRL.
“They are disappointed with themselves and lost a game today they did enough to win in."
A gutted captain Kurt Gidley looked back on the two-point defeat and was frank in his appraisal of the team.
“I’m just lost for words. It was completely unacceptable from my point of view,” he said.
“How much more motivation do you need?
“We were playing at home, we were up by 10. We achieved some of the things we wanted to achieve in the first half.
“The second half was an embarrassment.
“At home in front of our fans and our family….sponsors, it’s the toughest one to cop today.”
Although the Knights struggle to find their feet, Stone assures improvements have been forthcoming.
“There was plenty of good stuff there today and the way we started was miles different from when we played the Raiders a couple of weeks ago,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m as frustrated as the fans with the concentration lapses and the tries and how it was coming in braces of tries in quick succession.
“That’s the biggest issue we have.”
It is a short turnaround for the Knights with the team taking on the Brisbane Broncos on Friday night at Suncorp Stadium.
