Newcastle consigned North Queensland to a seventh straight NRL loss, the Cowboys going down 30-18 at Dairy Farmers Stadium.

Late Newcastle tries to Jarrod Mullen and Kurt Gidley, who bagged a double, extinguished any hopes of a home victory after Johnathan Thurston locked up the scores with a penalty goal with ten minutes remaining.

It was another night to forget for the Cowboys, in the midst of their worst losing streak since 1999 following the sacking of coach Graham Murray and a string of injuries and suspensions to key players.

They have won just three games to sit second last on the ladder while Newcastle climbed to eighth with Monday night's win.

The shock late selection of five-eighth Chris Sheppard from feeder club Northern Pride failed to spark the Cowboys attack with much of the play being orchestrated by Thurston.

Knights captain Danny Buderus and Gidley, both backing up from NSW's 30-0 State of Origin loss to Queensland, were the destroyers.

Buderus stole plenty of metres from dummy half and set up a try while Gidley grabbed two tries and booted six goals.

Gidley had his first try straight after the break off a Richard Fa'aoso offload and then converted.

Cowboys winger Ben Farrar stemmed the flow with his second try in the 50th minute while a converted Matthew Bartlett four-pointer after a Knights error reduced the margin to two with 16 minutes remaining.

Farrar, reverting to the wing after a string of appearances at centre, had got the Cowboys on the board with a try out wide in the fourth minute of play.

But it would be their only joy in the first half as Chris Houston scored after 15 minutes for the Knights before teammate Matt Hilder beat a lazy tackle attempt from prop Shane Tronc to hand the visitors a handy 12-4 lead at the break.

Newcastle coach Brian Smith praised his side's intensity and determination.

"There was no shortage of effort and I thought the smaller guys led the way tonight," Smith said.

"It was a big part of what we set out to do tonight - to run hard and really test their defence.

"I thought we were a bit sloppy in the first half, a couple of our handling errors they were try chances missed."

Smith was reluctant to criticise the performance of Shayne Hayne who failed to refer a possible Buderus try in the first half.

"I thought we could have had a bigger buffer but I have probably said enough already," he said.

"It (the decision) was hard to understand."

Cowboys coach Ian Millward was left to rue yet another opportunity to get his side's season back on track.

"I don't think it is about the amount of losses it is the way we are going about it," Millward said.

"The last game here we got beaten in golden point and it looked like it was going to go to golden point again."

"We have to have a look how we go about it, how we are going to become a bit more consistent."

In what shapes as a further blow to the Cowboys playing stocks, Sheppard will have scans on a hamstring after breaking down in the first half.

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