Newcastle have snapped a five-game losing streak with a rugged 22-12 NRL win over Wests Tigers at Hunter Stadium.
In front of a strong 15,573 crowd, the two teams went try for try over the first 77th minutes in a tightly-contested affair.
But the turning point came when debutant hookerChad Redman barged over from close to the line just minutes from fulltime, sealing a sorely needed victory for the home team.
Knights winger James McManus opened the scoring when he finished off a well-executed left-side sweep in the 9th minute.
Tigers halfback Luke Brooks responded with a wicked right foot step that put second-rower Dene Halatau over in the 17th.
The home side replied almost immediately when David Fa'alogo was first to a spilt Tyrone Roberts bomb four minutes later.
On the back of an 83 per cent completion rate in the first half, the Knights starved the Tigers of good field possession but could only take a six-point advantage into the main break.
The visitors again levelled when James Tedesco soccered through twice for Brooks in the 50th minute, only for the hosts to pull away for a third time on McManus' tapback for Leilua minutes afterwards.
Tigers centre Chris Lawrence came off in the second half due to concussion but returned to finish the game, as did NSW second-rower Beau Scott, who played on after a neck problem in the first half.
