Newcastle winger Akuila Uate scored two tries to help the Knights to a 14-6 victory over Parramatta in a scrappy NRL clash at Hunter Stadium.

The Knights made life difficult for themselves with some poor discipline but they did enough to hold off the last-placed Eels side who were coming off their first win of the season against Manly last week.

Five-eighth Jarrod Mullen came up with some big plays for the Knights but none bigger than his 40-20 in the second half which brought his side to life.

On the back of the play in the 54th minute Newcastle sent the ball wide with centre Junior Sa’u throwing a dubious pass for Uate to crash over in the corner.

Young halfback Tyrone Roberts, who replaced injured skipper Kurt Gidley, converted the try from out wide to give the Knights a 14-6 lead.

Newcastle led 8-6 at halftime after a terrible opening 40 minutes with both sides guilty of squandering tryscoring opportunities in front of a big crowd of 24,518.

The Knights opened the scoring with a soft try on six minutes when captain Danny Buderus went for a blindside play finding Sa’u who sucked in two defenders before popping a short ball for unmarked Uate to score out wide.

Roberts stepped up and converted the try and soon after slotted a penalty goal to settle any nerves he might have had to make the score 8-0.

Eels prop Tim Mannah made amends for a couple of terrible play-the-balls that resulted in scrums when he barged over to score from close range in the 35th minute on the back of a penalty against Timana Tahu for a high shot.

But it would be the visitors’ only try in a game that struggled to reach any great heights.