A Knight to remember

The Newcastle Knights have produced an amazing emotionally-charged performance to defeat the Melbourne Storm in front of their passionate home fans at EnergyAustralia Stadium to stay alive in the run to the 2008 finals.

It was a simply stunning performance from the locals who dug in for the entire 80 minutes and refused to let the defending Premiers settle into their rhythm. The passion and energy was obvious amongst the Knights and their fans, obviously pumped up by the farewell given to local legend Danny Buderus before the match.

The Knights jumped out of the blocks following a kick-off fumble by Billy Slater and posted the first try after only one minute of play to replacement dummy-half Matt Hilder, then added a penalty goal for an 8-0 lead after only six minutes. The Storm were their own worst enemies with plenty of handling errors contributing to their demise, and the Knights were more than happy to take advantage.

An intercept try to Greg Inglis gave the Storm a much-needed boost and brought them within two points midway through the half before a further penalty goal to Scott Dureau gave the Knights a 10-6 halftime lead. Although he cost his team the penalty, Billy Slater was lucky to avoid the sin-bin after committing what seemed to be a pretty blatant professional foul by clipping Dureau who was chasing his own chip-kick to the Storm in-goal area.

The Storm came out firing in the second half after what was no doubt a spirited chat by coach Craig Bellamy, and Israel Folau scored out wide to level the scores with only a few minutes gone. The Knights weren