Knights 16 Dragons 24

YOU have heard about Adam MacDougall vowing in an Origin camp to hit Wendell Sailor so hard his rival would turn white.

And you've heard how he once summoned his most valuable assets to an urgent pre-match address and told them: "Don't let me down, legs."

Well, unless we were sorely mistaken, it was possible to read MacDougall's every thought when he locked horns with Sailor again last night.

MacDougall ran out in front of a jam-packed house of 22,348 - the biggest for the Knights this year - and referee Sean Hampstead blew his whistle. Don't let me down, Hampstead .

MacDougall made his first tackle on Brett Morris with the help of Kurt Gidley. Don't let me down, Gidley .

He ran onto the ball and received the ball for his first touch. Don't let me down, hands . And so on.

Here's a funny thing about Newcastle crowds. They virtually fill the joint, roar their heads off at the opening whistle - and then go dead quiet.

It's as if they love the game so much they have to give the match every skerrick of their concentration.

They go a bit berserk if the Knights start winning. If they're trailing, they chant "Newcastle! Newcastle!"' until the walls shake.

But there are extended periods of eerie silence. Make some noise, crowd.

MacDougall, at right centre, and Sailor, on the right wing, were so far apart they would have needed megaphones to indulge in a little sledging. MacDougall was struggling to get involved. Spin it wide, halves . Jarrod Mullen launched a bomb in MacDougall's direction and the veteran got at least six inches off the ground. I'm no Israel Folau .

A Jamie Soward penalty put the Dragons 2-0 up after 15 minutes, and then came another round of quiet from the masses.

Sailor was doing a lot of good stuff in his return from a fractured cheekbone and the insertion of a steel plate in his face that will set off every metal detector at every airport in the world. Soward kicked towards the wing of MacDougall and James McManus. Yours, McManus . Danger was averted.

Kirk Reynoldson came off the bench for the Dragons in his first game against the Knights since he was released last year when he needed only one more game to activate a clause in his contract worth tens of thousands of dollars.

He stormed through a gap, threw a dummy and was about to score but stumbled just when he was about to activate four points on the scoreboard.

Dragons centre Chase Stanley stretched out to score in the 26th minute, but the ball came down on Knights halfback Mullen's foot.

It was touch and go and Hampstead referred the decision to video referee Phil Cooley. MacDougall glared at the big screen. Don't let us down, Cooley . Stanley was given the benefit of the doubt, Soward nailed a sideline conversion and the Dragons led 8-0 en route to their seventh straight victory.

Sailor handled the ball six times in the first half, tripling the total amount of possession he received during all his years in rugby. His last came when he took a Mullen kick and found himself in open space with 70 metres to go. He set sail and was about to discover what it was like for your legs to let you down. The big man was pushed into touch by Mullen and said a word rhyming with fire truck.

Right on half-time, the Knights passed up a penalty in an effort to post a try. Instead, Chris Houston spilled possession and Josh Morris ended up scoring at the other end. Instead of trailing by six points at the break, the Knights were down 14-0.

MacDougall looked down. This wasn't in the script, legs .

Soward and Jason Ryles scored soft tries and the scoreline started becoming embarrassing at 24-0.

MacDougall then gave the final pass for a Junior Sau try. Don't sing yet, fat lady . A great flick pass was ruled forward by Hampstead. You're kidding, sir .

The deficit proved too great. GUS'S VERDICT

To their credit, they did play some attractive football and managed to post 24 unanswered points to set up a winning lead.

The Knights were courageous through this whole period and when they finally got some ball, they too showed they can attack with the best of them.

It was a highly entertaining contest with great skill on display.

There was also plenty of desperate goal-line defence from both teams to deny their opponents what seemed like certain tries.

The halves and hookers from both sides were outstanding. Big Wendell Sailor went very well, too.

PHIL GOULD THE Dragons had all the possession, got all the calls and more than their fair share of luck during the first hour of play.