Penrith's big pack rumbled and the little men sizzled to hand the Panthers some breathing space at the bottom of the NRL top eight with a 24-10 victory over Wests Tigers at CUA Stadium.

The Panthers were forced to come from behind in registering the four tries to two win, but they may have paid a price for the victory with boom rookie Lachlan Coote suffering suspected medial ligament damage in his right knee.

Panthers props Petero Civoniceva and Tony Puletua were enormous for the home side, but it was the flying Gordon who won all the accolades with a 16-point haul courtesy of two tries and a perfect four from four with the boot.

He got plenty of help from rookie hooker Masada Iosefa and centre Michael Jennings, who made amends for letting opposite Chris Lawrence run around him for the Tigers' opening try by scorching through the middle of the ruck for the match-sealing four-pointer with ten minutes remaining.

The win lifted the Panthers to sixth spot on the ladder, while the Tigers are now two points outside the eight and needing to win four of their last six games to make the finals.

The Tigers started the better side with Peni Tagive, a late replacement for Beau Ryan, backing up a splendid Lawrence run from a scrum win inside his own half, the young centre skirting across field before taking the gap offered by Jennings.

Gordon replied with his first before young giant Daine Laurie showed great hands to pick up a loose ball before steamrolling over Luke Priddis for a 10-6 Tigers halftime lead.

Gordon did it all himself with a chip and chase down the sideline to give the home side their first lead just five minutes after the restart, and he looked like making it a hattrick when he swooped on a kick on his own tryline and took off on a swerving run downfield.

The run was brought to an abrupt end by a slap in the face by Ben Te'o, but there was no stopping the Panthers with Iosefa going over untouched after taking the ball one off the ruck close to the Tigers line.

Laurie was lucky to escape being put on report when took out Luke Lewis with a late hit, the Panthers not needing their No.7 as Jennings cut through to seal the result.

Panthers coach Matthew Elliott admitted the win was crucial with Penrith facing powerhouses Manly, twice, and Melbourne over the last six weeks.

"It was a really important win for us for a lot of reasons, obviously the two points for where we are on the competition table are vital for sure," Elliott said.

"But to come from behind at halftime and not to play our most cohesive footy, but still be reasonably comfortable in what we did, was fairly encouraging."

Elliott admitted the confidence of his younger brigade of Iosefa, Coote and Wade Graham was starting to rub off on the rest of the team.

"Can you still believe Wade is at school?" Elliott said.

"The young kids that we've got, I think it's a testimony to their maturity but also the fact they can come in and play alongside Petero and Luke Priddis and be made to feel part of the team straight away."

Tigers coach Tim Sheens said the loss had left his side in a large hole.

"It's certainly a nail in the coffin, I wouldn't say we're sealed in yet but we're going under, we just couldn't afford to lose that game really," he said.

"It just put a lot of pressure on us for the remaining game.

"We won't right ourselves off, but it was a game there to be won."

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