DIE-HARD Knights fans got to see a performance they could be proud of but the past fortnight still has some loyalists dismayed with the club they love.
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The lowest crowd since 1997 and the worst-ever on Old Boys' day showed up to witness Newcastle's 38-4 win over Gold Coast Titans at what looked liked a deserted McDonald Jones Stadium.
While the 8274 crowd could partly be attributed to the dumping of rain that fell on the Lower Hunter in the 24 hours before the match, the calamity surrounding Nathan Brown's departure and measly loss to the Tigers a week earlier had clearly turned some fans off.
There was a call for a boycott leading up to the match and it appeared only the most loyal of fans remained.
Rutherford's Joshua Wilton, 29, had not missed a home game this season and was at Campbelltown for the 46-4 loss to the Tigers.
"That's the first game I've ever left prior to full-time because I didn't want to see it anymore," he said before Saturday's match.
"There's some players in the side that haven't come from here and they don't know what the jersey means to the fans.
"But we're tough fans; we go through the hard times with the players and we go through the good times."
Season members Neville Korsman, 76, and his daughter Stephanie, 46, of Fletcher, described the past two weeks as "disgraceful" and said they, like others, felt "let down" and "disillusioned".
"Somebody's got to starting telling the truth about what actually happened," Nev, a supporter since the club's inception, said.
Stephanie added: "I'm just scared that now Nathan Brown's moved on, they're going to use the next one, two, three seasons that we're back in a rebuilding stage.
"That they're going to use that as the excuse for every loss that we have - that we're rebuilding.
"How much longer can you keep rebuilding?"
Sitting on the hill with a plastic tarp to try and shelter from the rain, Toronto's Jody Gurien, 25, was clearly showing her love for the Knights.
"I support them win, lose or draw," she said, adding it had been a "tough" couple of weeks.
"With any club, if a coach is going to leave they should wait until the end of the year. Not halfway through when there's games still going."
Like many fans, Ms Gurien said "all would be fine" if the "boys come out and play as well as they can".
And so they did, repaying those who had stuck solid.
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