Newcastle's finals hopes have taken a damaging blow after being outclassed 20-12 by a largely second-string Penrith side at BlueBet Stadium on Saturday night.
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Missing star halfback Nathan Cleary and NSW Origin representatives Jarome Luai, Stephen Crichton, Liam Martin, Isaah Yeo and Brian To'o, the depleted Panthers didn't miss a beat in front of 18,589 fans at home.
Newcastle had been eager to make a strong start against the defending premiers but it was largely one-way traffic with Penrith completing at 100 per cent in the opening 40 minutes.
After leading 16-6 at half-time, the Panthers crossed for their fourth try just seven minutes into the second stanza before halfback Jackson Hastings scored in the 54th to give the Knights a chance, but the home side held their eight-point lead until full-time to claim their 10th win this season.
Newcastle's loss, their seventh in the past nine games, leaves them languishing in 14th position on 15 points.
They now have nine games remaining but will likely need to win the vast majority of them to make the finals.
They face the Bulldogs in Sydney next Sunday before their third and final bye.
Penrith fullback Dylan Edwards, one of his side's few remaining big-name players, opened the scoring eight minutes in after cutting through the defensive line and stepping around counterpart Kalyn Ponga.
It came just a few plays after Ponga got pinned in the in-goal area after miscalculating the weight of a kick hoping it would go dead.
Ponga hit back for Newcastle nine minutes later, scoring after Dom Young made a break down the right flank to help level the scores at six-all.
Penrith took advantage of some space on the left flank to score their second in the 25th minute, centre Tyrone Peacy finishing off a sweeping play that badly caught out Newcastle's defence.
Peachey had a double 10 minutes later when he raced onto a bouncing ball that Dom Young had batted backwards from a short goal-line drop out
The bizarre try put Penrith ahead 16-6 after halfback Jack Cogger nailed the conversion.
Newcastle lost Jack Hetherington to the sin-bin two minutes before half-time after he was penalised for slapping Penrith centre Izack Tago.
The home side took just seven minutes to add their fourth try after the break with Jaeman Salmon borrowing out of dummy-half to score on the left edge.
Trailing 20-6, Newcastle gave themselves a chance when halfback Jackson Hastings scored behind the goal posts after a neat run from close range.
Hastings left the field with 20 minutes left to play after injuring his lower right leg, which he broke last year, but returned a few minutes later.
Newcastle chanced their arm late in the game but repeat mistakes prevented them from making any inroads.
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