Newcastle fans were livid at a controversial video referee decision to award Penrith lock Joseph Paulo a try to helped the Panthers to a nailbiting 34-30 NRL victory over Newcastle at EnergyAustralia Stadium on Monday.
The benefit-of-the-doubt ruling from video referee Paul Simpkins resulted in a 72nd-minute try to Paulo which locked the scores up at 30-30.
Penrith centre Adrian Purtell then crossed in the final minute to deliver the thrilling win to the visitors after Newcastle had led 24-6 at halftime.
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Knights halfback Scott Dureau appeared to be impeded as Paulo flew high to grab a Luke Walsh bomb and the decision brought a hail of boos from the crowd of 15,894.
Newcastle five-eighth Jarrod Mullen looked to have scored the clincher with in the 68th minute after the the Panthers had fought back to 24-24.
Knights winger Akuila Uate bagged a first-half hat-trick as his side took advantage of three Penrith forward passes at their own end to pile on four tries in 15 minutes before the break.
The Panthers mounted a second-half comeback, scoring in their first set of six when Knights fullback Shannon McDonnell spilled a bomb and Michael Jennings sprinted away for his first four-pointer of 2010.
A soft try to interchange forward Sam McKendry eight minutes later made it 24-18 and the momentum was with the resurgent visitors.
Luke Lewis capitalised on a horror bounce from a Walsh grubber in the 62nd minute to score millimetres inside the deadball line and the conversion had the scores level at 24-24.
Mullen shredded the Panthers defence in the 68th minute to give the Knights the ascendency again before Paulo's controversial four-pointer.
It had been a first half of two halves.
Newcastle were woeful with their handling early and the more controlled Panthers scored first in the 20th minute when fullback Lachlan Coote scooped up loose ball after a grubber from former Knight Walsh.
But then an unforgivable three forward passes in their own territory from the Panthers - twice from hooker Kevin Kingston - gifted the Knights the field position to score four tries.
Uate crashed over twice from dummy half, sandwiching those short-range efforts with a 95m sprint down the right sideline after the Panthers had messed up an attacking raid.
Cory Paterson got the other four-pointer, another soft try from close to Penrith's line.
The Panthers were boosted by the early return of powerhouse second-rower Frank Pritchard (shoulder), who hadn't been due to return for another month.
