Manly halfback Daly Cherry-Evans kicked a miraculous field goal with just three seconds left on the clock to clinch a thrilling 15-14 win over Newcastle on Monday night which robbed the gallant Knights of a famous upset at Brookvale Oval.

Leading 14-4 with just over a quarter of the match remaining, the Knights looked set to cast aside the ownership crisis gripping the club to win at fortress Brookvale for just the third time in their history and lift themselves off joint-last position on the NRL ladder.

But with the last throw of the dice before the match went to golden point, Cherry-Evans launched a 40-metre field goal from out near the right-hand sideline to give the out-of-sorts Manly a valuable victory on the eve of the State of Origin period.

Newcastle players were strewn across the park as Cherry-Evans, picked on the bench for Queensland earlier that night, celebrated his latest moment of genius.

Manly winger Jorge Taufua put a series of clangers behind him to help the Sea Eagles get back into the match, before lock Jamie Buhrer pounced on a James McManus dropped ball in the 73rd minute to deadlock the match at 14-14.

Newcastle had a golden opportunity to kick the field goal and clinch the match, but fullback Darius Boyd sent the ball to the right of the posts.

Five-eighth Jarrod Mullen elected to pass the ball despite himself having a chance to take the shot, and Boyd wasn’t able to execute despite no defender within striking distance.

When Dane Gaigai sprinted 70 metres to stretch the margin to 10 it looked as though the Knights would overcome the absences of go-to-men Beau Scott, Jeremy Smith and Joey Leilua.

But Kurt Gidley missed a penalty goal in the 68th minute that would have put them ahead 16-4.

In a sloppy match, most of the action for the night came from opposite wingers Uate and Taufua – who both scored two tries, but they came in amongst a long line of clangers.

Uate opened the scoring with a burrowing effort in the first half, and grabbed his second when Taufua spilt a grubber on his own line.

Taufua’s freakish ability to find the try-line got Manly back into the match after Newcastle had taken a 10-0 lead after 53 minutes, however he may have played himself out of a NSW State of Origin jersey after letting three bombs bounce in the first half.