Newcastle coach Rick Stone will decide later this week whether skipper Kurt Gidley will move into halfback for what could be the remainder of the NRL season after Jarrod Mullen tore his pectoral muscle in Saturday's 8-6 win over Parramatta.

Mullen sustained the injury tackling Jeff Robson late in the first half, and although he will undergo scans on Sunday morning to ascertain the full extent of the problem, the Knights are fearing the worst, with the recovery rate from the injury usually about four to six months.

The injury marred the Knights' win, to end a run of three successive defeats, in a match played in wet conditions at Ausgrid Stadium in front of a crowd of 18,723.

"After the last few weeks it would have been very easy to throw in the towel, especially after losing Jarrod in the first half, it made things very tough, but we fought hard and I am very pleased with the win," Stone said.

"Mullo has got a tear, he will have scans and I can't really speculate what I will do until we know how bad it is, how he pulls up tomorrow and what the scans say.

"It is a significant injury ... but we do have a couple of options to cover for it.

"We are lucky to have Gids here and that he is so versatile ... but we also have young Tyrone Roberts who could come in, so I will decide later in the week what I will do."

Stone hailed his side's second-half defence and said the attitude when facing a late surge from the Eels was what sealed the two points.

"We attacked better than them in the first half but the biggest compliment I can pay them is that our defence won us the game and that is very pleasing," he said.

Eels coach Stephen Kearney bemoaned his side's handling errors, with the visitors conceding eight penalties, ranging from incorrect play-the-balls, to being caught offside, but refused to admit his side are in crisis.

"We are one win outside the top eight," Kearney told AAP.

"We played well at times tonight and although the mistakes were frustrating, we defended very well when they had the ball, but we are certainly not giving up this season."

Veteran centre Chris Walker looked to have won the game for the visitors three minutes from time when he dived on a Jarryd Hayne grubber-kick, but video replays showed he was not in control of the ball.

The former Queensland star admitted he was unsure if he had scored, despite his confident look as he rose from the turf.

"I had to check my run as I thought the ball was going to hit the posts and I got to it about a split-second too late," Walker told AAP.

"It was all part of the act when I got up, but I didn't know what part of the body I got it down with, whether it was my hands or my torso, I looked pretty confident but the replay showed I did miss the ball so no complaints, but we feel it was a game we should have won."

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