A conservative 80 percent of the Knights attacking firepower watched yesterday's loss against the Wests Tigers from the grandstand.

Six potential starting players - Kalyn Ponga, Blake Green, Bradman Best, Edrick Lee, Lachlan Fitzgibbon and Starford To'a - were all there, squirming in their seats as their side fumbled its way to a defeat in another one of those "we shouldn't lose' danger games.

An important milestone game for the club and Mitchell Pearce no less.

Take a half a dozen players, including two or three of your best, out of any NRL side and you run the risk of having your pants pulled down by anyone if you don't at the very least get the fundamentals right.

The Knights got them right against the Warriors the previous week, hardly making an error and coming up with some great try-line defence. But they still needed two pieces of brilliance from Best to ice the win.

It was always going to take a similar mistake-free, controlled performance to get over the line against a desperate Tigers.

And that's where the excuses end.

The 18 errors and 68 percent completion rate tell a sorry tale. The home side didn't give themselves a chance. And when they did hang onto the ball and look good in attack, it was for only a 15 minute window in the second half off the back of Connor Watson, Daniel Saifiti, Tyson Frizell and some good moments from fullback Tex Hoy.

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Saifiti and Watson combined up the middle to send Pearce over for a try to remember under the posts. And when Watson and Hoy joined forces to provide the lead-up for Frizell to storm over for the Knights to lead for the first time in the match with 11 minutes to go, there was a genuine feeling among the 20,000-strong crowd the home side may just get out of jail.

But almost right on queue, the Knights had one big error left in them.

Gehamat Shibasaki, already living out a nightmare on the right wing as To'a's replacement, could not find a hole big enough to crawl into after spilling a regulation bomb a few metres from his own try-line with seven minutes left on the clock.

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From the scrum in the centre of the field 10 metres out, the Tigers found winger David Nofoaluma unmarked on the right flank with a long pass and he planted the ball down in the corner for what turned out to be the matchwinning try.

Watson, who was the Knights best and looked threatening with his speed and footwork, admitted it was a tough performance to swallow for all the players given the significance of the occasion.

"We wanted to win it but we wanted to play well and win it for Pearcey to be honest and for Dom Young making his debut as well," Watson said.

"I don't know whether it was the occasion that got to us but the errors just killed us. The idea was for us to play like the Tigers played, with plenty of control and a good kicking game at the end of sets.

"That went out the window unfortunately."

Young came up with a couple of mistakes late in the game but the giant English teenage centre showed plenty to suggest he will be a player of the future.

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The Knights now have to re-group and prepare for next Sunday's home clash against a resurgent St George Illawarra Dragons.

In the Knights' favour is the Dragons will be with halfback Ben Hunt who is a big out for the Red V.

Coach Adam O'Brien won't have Best to call on with the centre likely to be out for around three weeks but To'a could be available if his shoulder settles down between now and then.