NYC Newcastle Knights coach Todd Lowrie says the side's goal line defence in the first half was what handed them the 22-12 win against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs on Friday.
The Under 20s notched up their third win for the season thanks to a lead of 18-0 in the first half.
“The boys did a lot of work in the first half,” Lowrie commented.
“Even though the results haven’t gone our way in the last two weeks, I thought they worked really hard and this time they put it all together and we got the result we wanted.
“In the second half, they thought they’d done all the hard work they needed to do but as footy goes, the Bulldogs came back although we were good enough to hold on.”
The NYC coach praised his side’s improvement in defence.
“It is an area that we’ve been working hard on, our goal line defence,” said Lowrie.
“Whilst we’ve been working really hard in the last few weeks our goal line defence hasn’t been that great, so to do that in the first half and keep them to nil points was great, a real credit to the guys.”
“Zac Hosking probably deserves a special mention, he played big minutes for us and found himself with an elbow injury towards the end and just held off.
“He is a tough kid and he played really well.”
The NYC Knights take on the Sydney Roosters at McDonald Jones Stadium this Good Friday, with kick off scheduled for 3.45pm.
