New Zealand Warriors flyer Denan Kemp was left seething that Knights skipper Kurt Gidley wasn't sin-binned for holding him back in Newcastle's dramatic 24-22 NRL win on Sunday.

Trailing 24-16 with eight minutes to go, the former Broncos winger chipped ahead of fullback Gidley with no Knights between him and the tryline.

As he looked to fly past Gidley and collect the ball, the Knights playmaker pulled Kemp's jumper enough some 15m out from the line to slow down his progress and have him brought down short of the line.

It looked like Gidley would be handed his marching orders in front of his home crowd at EnergyAustralia Stadium but referee Gavin Badger thought otherwise by only penalising him.

"To be honest I thought he was going to get binned or it was a penalty try," Kemp told AAP.

"I believe that if he did not hold me back I probably would have scored but in saying that there is nothing you can do about it now."

Warriors coach Ivan Cleary was also fuming over the decision to not send Gidley from the park for the remaining minutes.

"Fairly straightforward I would have thought ... that might have helped," he said.

"You can say there was a fair chance of scoring but you can't really give a penalty try.

"But the next best thing ... I thought it was fairly straightforward.

"But that is my opinion and I will be interested to hear what you guys think."

Gidley said that Kemp had tugged at his jumper as well.

"He kicked the ball and I tried to get in his road ... I think we both jostled a bit and he had a fair bit of jumper as well," Gidley said.

"I reckon it is 50-50 ... I don't how it looked to everyone else.

"I had to try and get the ball and there was a bit of elbowing well, then it was one on one and I suppose I had to do it."

Knights coach Brian Smith thought his star charge might have been in more trouble.

"At the time it ran through my mind but I would like to see it again," he said.

The Warriors scored another try at the 75th minute mark in slightly controversial circumstances with question marks over whether Patrick Ah Van actually got the ball down with Badger also involved in that decision.

But the Knights were able to hang on in the humid, energy-sapping conditions as the Warriors lost their third straight match.

Not that the visitors were the only ones to grumble about the officials with Knights coach Brian Smith cranky about his side being on the wrong side of a "5-0" second half penalty count.

"The Warriors certainly are in favour with the refs ... that made it hard for us in the second half," he said.

Earlier on, substitute Jarrod Mullen and Gidley were involved in everything as the Knights opened up a comfortable 24-12 lead with a dozen minutes to play before the Warriors tried to replicate their round two miracle act against Manly.

Mullen and Gidley, who was off with the boot with two from five, played a part in all of the home side's points in the five-tries-to-four triumph.

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