But Knights teammates have rallied around the powerhouse 18-year-old, who scored two of Newcastle's three tries in the 14-all draw with the Panthers and otherwise played strongly in his first game in more than eight months.

Kangaroo prop David Klemmer declared the highly talented youngster would win plenty of games for the Knights before his career is over.

"I knew he was down so I pulled him aside after the game and just told him he'd let no-one down and to forget about it," Klemmer said.

"Those sorts of things can happen - it's just part of footy. Not everything goes right all the time. He's a great athlete and a great talent who is going to win this footy club plenty more games in the future."

Regarded as one of the code's future superstars, Best was playing his first game since last season's final round after having off-season foot surgery.

He showed exactly why coach Adam O'Brien opted to change a winning centre combination to include him in the team by making the most of limited opportunities to run in two second half tries.

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But in his own mind, they were over-shadowed by the missed chance in golden point after fullback Tex Hoy had put him in space.

Best looked set to score the matchwinner himself before unselfishly opting to pass to Edrick Lee but the ball went behind the big winger and into touch.

"That was something I needed to ice and we win the game if I don't stuff that up there," he told the Newcastle Herald.

"Sunday night, it kept me up. I didn't sleep and was thinking about it all night. I second guessed myself and should have just put my head down and gone for it - if I do that I score and we win.

"But I've put it behind me now. The boys were good. They all said don't worry about it. It's one of those things that can happen in a game.

"I'll learn from it. If I'm in that situation again, I'll make sure I'll finish it a whole lot better. I'll take some key lessons learned there. I walked into training and Mitch Barnett said 'just back yourself brother' and next time I will."

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Best said he had no issues with the foot he had operated on in March and believes he can be more of a threat in games.

"I was happy with parts of my game but I definitely need to be a bit more consistent," he said.

"I didn't see too much footy in the first half because we did so much defending and when I did, it was mostly coming out of yardage when I was taking a few hit-ups.

"I'd like to be getting some early ball I suppose but just the way the game went, there wasn't a lot of opportunity for me to get my hands on it because it didn't really come my way in that first half.

"But I need to take it apon myself a bit more to get in and help the boys out more. That's what I've got to do because the forwards are doing all the defence and can't do everything."

Meanwhile, Newcastle captain Mitchell Pearce is expected to play against the Canberra Raiders at Campbelltown Stadium on Sunday despite the concussion he suffered in the early minutes of the Penrith clash that saw him miss the majority of the game.

Pearce was left wobbly-legged and had a slight cut below his right eye after collecting an accident elbow in the face while attempting to tackle Panthers centre Stephen Chrichton.

There have been questions asked as to whether he should be stood down even if he passes all the concussion protocols this week. But teammate Hymel Hunt has no doubts his skipper will be fine to lead the side against the Raiders.

"I don't know if he even got a concussion," Hunt said. "It was a bad concussion on the video but as soon as we were on the bus home, he was his normal self and you couldn't shut him up and he just kept talking.

"I think he's 100 percent fine to tell you the truth. It's like he never got concussed."

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