Newcastle coach Rick Stone hailed the performance of debutant five-eighth Ryan Stig following his side's dour 16-12 NRL win over Penrith on Saturday at Ausgrid Stadium.

His strong showing was the only bright spot in a woeful encounter, which saw the Knights score tries in either half through Neville Costigan and Akuila Uate, with Panthers' utility forward Masada Iosefa crossing twice in the second half.

The 21-year-old Stig - who spent an unhappy spell in North Queensland last season after coming through the ranks at the Knights, before returning this year - was handed his opportunity due to an injury to Tyrone Roberts and the departure of Beau Henry to the Gold Coast.

"Stig was terrific. As a club, we copped a bit of flak about the Beau Henry thing last week and we knew we had a couple of young blokes in Ryan and Tyrone Roberts who could cover Jarrod Mullen and Kurt (Gidley) when he is away," Stone said.

"Today he showed real composure, showed real aggression taking on the line. He probably didn't get as many kicks as he would have liked but, hopefully, that side of his game will come on in the next few weeks."

Knights' skipper Gidley, whose two penalties proved to be the difference between the sides, was also impressed by Stig and said he'd heeded his advice to keep things uncomplicated.

"He was good for his first game, took the line on well with his strength and confidence, and he was dominant and it was great to see," Gidley said.

"I told him before to keep it simple and he did. He passed early and communicated well."

Despite the scrappy nature of the win, which took the Knights into the top eight, Stone was happy with his side's resolve against a Panthers side missing the injured Luke Lewis, Michael Jennings, Michael Gordon and key forward Nigel Plum.

"There is more satisfaction than relief. We were in control for the majority of the game. There were a few tense moments out there, but the boys definitely defended well," he said.

"But I liked the way we closed out the game - we showed maturity. We got a little bit tired and wayward at the end, but the effort and resolve of the boys was great."

Panthers' coach Matt Elliott bemoaned his side's inability to keep hold of the ball and said he felt, emotionally, his players were down going into the game.

"The headline from this one should read 'strange old game'," Elliott said.

"We invented new ways to give up possession and, ultimately, it cost us. When you have a line up as disrupted as we have had this week, you don't expect your greatest continuity, but the unforced errors, losing scrum feeds, players getting the ball pinched off them on play one ... that hurt us.

"I thought our emotional state wasn't as great as it has been. We didn't play with the same aggression in defence and there was probably a bit of volume out of the sting in our carry.

"It would be nice to give a simple answer as to why, but there are a number of factors. We have four international players out and that dilutes the talent we have.

"But we will all sit round and hold hands in a circle, look into each others' eyes and work out why we were just not at our best."

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