Newcastle coach Wayne Bennett says he wasn’t concerned after officials didn’t hear the full-time siren as his side desperately defended their NRL lead over Canterbury.

The Knights were forced to make two tackles close to their tryline after time appeared to be up in their 18-12 win at Mackay Stadium on Sunday.

Bennett said the incident would’ve created controversy if the Bulldogs had managed to score a potentially match-winning try.

But the seven-time premiership winning coach believes his team’s victory was never really in doubt.

“They’d have to award the game to the Knights or the team that was ahead at the end of the game,” Bennett matter-of-factly said after the game.

“You can’t win a game when you’re out of time.

“I wasn’t particularly beating myself up about it.”

Knights skipper Jarrod Mullen admitted there had been confusion when the referees didn’t blow their whistles but it was just a matter of keeping their cool.

“The clock looked like it ran out a couple of tackles before,” Mullen said.

“We just needed to keep scrambling, we scrambled well all day.”