got a let-off when the Storm were pinged for a forward pass when they looked likely to score.
From that point the Knights worked their way back into the match, with bruising defence from MacDougall, Cross and Paterson forcing the Storm to cough the ball up in their own half coupled with some uncharacteristic errors from the premiers.
However, the home side was unable to take advantage of its glut of possession. The Knights spilt the ball on three occasions inside the Storm 20 before Mullen was adjudged to have thrown a forward pass when it looked like he had put Uate over in the corner.
Melbourne took the lead against the run of play 11 minutes from full-time. Finch ghosted out of dummy half on the half-way line to race into the clear and then showed plenty of poise to draw the defence before offloading to Nielsen, who sprinted away to score under the black dot. Smith converted to see the Storm lead 18-14.
Newcastle attacked with urgency in the final few minutes but the Storm produced more solid goal-line defence to shut out the Knights.
Smith then put a raking kick downfield with the Storm defence trapping Knights fullback Shannon McDonnell behind his goal line. Dureau attempted a short drop-out but the ball didn’t go the required 10 metres and Melbourne was gifted a penalty right in front of the sticks which Smith kicked to make the final score 20-14 to the Storm.
Newcastle Knights 14
Tries: Uate, MacDougall
Goals: Naiqama 3/3
Melbourne Storm 20
Tries: MacDougall, Quinn, Nielsen
Goals: Smith 4/5
Crowd 16, 242 at EnergyAustralia Stadium.