The Eels had plenty of chances in the match but for the most part they looked flat in attack aside from the odd decent play from five-eighth Ben Roberts who tried his best to spark the team, particularly in the second half.
"I don't think Wayne [Bennett] would be real happy, but he would be happier than me," Kearney said. "I thought we gave ourselves enough opportunities in that second half on their tryline but we just couldn't come up with that killer blow.
"I don't mind getting beat but I don't like us beating ourselves which I thought we did today."
Captain Nathan Hindmarsh laid the blame elsewhere.
"I think our halves are doing a good job but then it's up to everyone to listen to them, I think," he said. "The halves can only call the plays but then it's up to the boys to get there and today there were a few of us who weren't trying real hard to get there."
The Knights made life difficult for themselves with some poor discipline but they did enough to hold on with Akuila Uate scoring two tries.
Newcastle led 8-6 at halftime after a terrible opening 40 minutes with both sides squandering tryscoring opportunities in front of a big crowd of 24,518.
The Knights opened the scoring on six minutes when captain Danny Buderus went for a blindside play, finding Kiwi Junior Sa'u who sucked in two defenders before popping a short ball for unmarked Uate to score.
Eels prop Tim Mannah scored the visitors' only try in the 35th minute.
In last night's late match, the Storm beat the Cowboys 42-18.
- AAP
