Penrith will face the Sydney Roosters next weekend in the first round of the NRL finals after beating the Warriors 22-6 to secure a well-deserved top-four finish at Sportingbet Stadium on Sunday.

The defeat ended the Warriors’ season, with the Auckland-based side needing to win or a loss by just two points to finish above Brisbane in the top-eight.

Ivan Cleary’s Panthers have been the surprise package this season and their victory was inspired by outstanding young fullback Matt Moylan, returning hooker James Segeyaro and the experienced Jamie Soward in front of a decent crowd of 13,551.

The Warriors improved in the second period following a poor first-half display but were unable to build on Manu Vatuvei’s 95-metre try just after the restart to round off another frustrating campaign.

Penrith got off to the perfect start with less than 10 minutes on the clock when a quick tap from Moylan caught the Warriors off guard.

His burst into space, freed young half Will Smith and Segeyaro scored under the posts from the next play.

The visitors looked to have hit back immediately through Vatuvei but Ngani Laumape was correctly adjudged to have impeded Josh Mansour in the build-up to the try.

That setback was compounded in the 17th minute as Segeyaro and Moylan linked up again with the fullback’s smart pass finding Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and the exciting young winger made no mistake from close range.

Despite their desperate predicament, the Warriors were guilty of several handling errors and Moylan added a third try on the stroke of halftime.

A good run from back-rower Ben Murdoch-Masila got his side into good field position and the reborn Soward switched the ball inside to find Moylan in support and the fullback powered past his rival No.1 Sam Tomkins to score.

Vatuvei gave the visitors hope after the restart with Shaun Johnson adding the extras to close the gap to 16-6 and they looked to have scored a second try when Feleti Mateo crossed, but Jamal Idris held up the former Parramatta utility.

It proved to be their last chance of scoring as the Panthers stretched their advantage with a Soward penalty before Watene-Zelezniak added his second late on after a brilliant tackle from Lewis Brown won the ball back for his side.

Once again Moylan was involved, and his grubber-kick was pounced upon by the young flyer to add some gloss to the scoreline.