“I’d leave a player out if I sensed any type of complacency and I know the senior boys would come to me, too. It was definitely not that.“

Stuart instead pointed to skill errors and ill discipline for the half-time deficit.

“Giving some penalties away on tackle one or tackle two after a kick chase, passing and hoping on some of those rucks, that isn’t the standard we want to play at,” he said.

Edrick Lee and debutant Krystian Mapapalangi were called into the side after Enari Tuala and Bradman Best were dropped for disciplinary issues and they formed a promising combination on the left.

On the other side, Dom Young bagged a double of his own to affirm his status as one of the Knights’ best players in a poor season.

The Raiders were stymied by handling errors and ill discipline in the first half but remained in the contest thanks to some wayward conversion attempts from Milford.

The Knights’ goal-line defence has been vulnerable all season and was twice penetrated by tries from kicks in the opening exchanges of the second half.

The game no longer on their terms, the Knights were unable to fight the Green Machine as it rolled forward.

Raiders prop forwards Josh Papalii and Joe Tapine combined to gift Jack Wighton the runaway try which sealed victory.

Knights coach Adam O’Brien said it was the gulf in experience between the sides, not the club’s difficult week off the field, that thwarted Newcastle.

“The (difference in) experience between the two teams probably showed in the second half,” he said.

“It’s a young team.

“The way we started after half-time, we didn’t start with the same intent that we did in the first half.”

Newcastle are now staring down the possibility of finishing the season with their second-worst home record in club history.

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The Knights have won just twice at home this year, fewer than in their 2005, 2015 and 2017 wooden spoon seasons, and face in-form Cronulla in their last home game of the campaign.

Corey Horsburgh was twice placed on report, most notably for late contact on Knights halfback Adam Clune.

AAP

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