BIG-game veterans Tim Glasby and Aidan Guerra are adamant the Knights can still qualify for the play-offs but acknowledge they need to launch a winning streak urgently.
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Newcastle have slipped to 11th on the ladder, two points behind the top eight, after five consecutive losses.
Another defeat against in-form Parramatta at Bankwest Stadium would be likely to leave them four points off the pace with games against North Queensland (home), Wests Tigers (away), Gold Coast (home) and Penrith (away) still to play.
Glasby and Guerra, who both won grand finals with their former clubs and played in series-winning Queensland Origin teams, said Newcastle were capable of going on a winning run, pointing to their six-game streak earlier in the season.
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"It's fact, we can be a good enough football team to be in the top eight," Guerra said. "We've just got to put it together on the weekend."
As well as Parramatta, both the Tigers and Panthers are above Newcastle on the ladder, which adds a cut-throat edge to those games.
"You look at the draw ahead, there's probably six teams battling out for two or three positions left in the top eight, and we play three of them," Guerra said.
"So I think if we want to be fair dinkum about our spot and whether or not we belong in that top eight, we've got to win those games.
"We've got to win if not all, then the majority of those five games, against teams that are competing for the same thing we are."
Glasby said the the Knights were "getting close to do-or-die stuff" but were still alive in the finals race.
"We're not out of it," Glasby said.
"I think we're a win out of the top eight, and at the start of the year I think we were tied last at one stage, or close to it, and we managed to get up near the top for.
"We are running out of time, that's for sure. Wins are becoming very important.
"We need to win a lot more games than we lose. We need to win four out of five, or five out of five, to put ourselves in with a good chance.
"Even then, you're not guaranteed a spot. But at the end of the day, we just really need to put in a good performance this week."
Knights coach Nathan Brown admitted after last week's 30-6 loss to Manly that his players had shown a lack of confidence and mental toughness in recent weeks.
Glasby said it was crucial that they kept believing in themselves.
"It's a fine art, getting the feedback and criticism you need, without beating everyone down too much and having a go," Glasby said.
"It's a tough game, footy, and you do need to believe in yourself. We won six games in a row earlier in the year, against some really good footy teams.
"We need to have a look at what we did well in that period, and have a look at what we're not doing so well at the moment, and try and get back to that sort of form."
Newcastle beat Parramatta 28-14 at McDonald Jones Stadium in round four to launch their six-game winning streak.
They have now beaten the Eels in their past four games and in 11 of their past 13 encounters, but Glasby was more concerned with Saturday's game than previous performances.
"I certainly wouldn't be going into the game thinking: 'Great, we've got Parramatta again'," he said.
"They're a good footy team ... it's certainly not a given that we're going to snap our losing streak this week."
Parramatta have won five of their past six games and have quickly racked up a formidable record on their new home turf, where they have won six out of seven this season.
Meanwhile, the Knights are hopeful utility Kurt Mann will be able to take his place on Saturday, despite suffering a knee problem in the loss to Manly.
"Kurt went down awkwardly on his left knee," Knights head of physical performance Balin Cupples said. "He's come through relatively strongly. There's no structural damage.
"He'll build into training in terms of rehab run and it's expected hell return to full training Wednesday and build into the Parra game."
After the injury-enforced retirement of Nathan Ross, the broken wrist that has sidelined Edrick Lee and the abrupt departure last week of Jesse Ramien, the Knights are running low on outside backs.
Mann has now played every position in Newcastle's backline, as well as spending the early stages of the season as a back-up dummy-half.
Lee will have another X-ray next week and is hopeful of returning to action this season.
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