The Sea Eagles have kept their minor premiership aspirations alive with a miraculous come from behind victory over the Panthers on Sunday.
In Jason King’s final game at Brookvale Oval, the Sea Eagles had to wait until the final minute of play to secure an unlikely 26-25.
Trailing by seven with barely four minutes on the clock, the Sea Eagles scored back-to back tries to send the home crowd into raptures.
Despite scoring first in nine of their last ten starts, the Sea Eagles found themselves behind early as Penrith’s Nigel Plum muscled his way over the line to record just his seventh NRL try.
On the wrong end of a 4-0 penalty count, the home side conceded another try to trail 10-0 after just 12 minutes, as winger Josh Mansour scored in the corner courtesy of some slick hands from his inside teammates.
After a nightmare opening to the match, the Sea Eagles were rewarded with back-to-back penalties, and from the ensuing set Manly fullback Brett Stewart popped a ball out the back to send Jamie Buhrer over the line.
A wild pass from Manly captain Jamie Lyon then saw Jamal Idris snatch an intercept to give his side a 10-point lead at the break.
But in almost identical fashion, the Manly centre threw a second intercept pass early in the second half for Soward to run 80-metres to extend the margin to 22-6.
Despite the score line, the Sea Eagles were far from out. It was that man Lyon who made up for his earlier blunders, showing off his fancy footwork to create a whole for Tom Symonds to crash over beside the right upright.
With the home crowd behind them, the Sea Eagles lifted another level and it was Stewart who broke the line mid way through the second half have the home crowd on their feet as he sent James Hasson under the sticks.
Trailing by six, the Panthers worked their way up field to extend the lead to seven after Moylan made no mistake from right in front.
But with four minutes remaining, the Sea Eagles scored through Lyon, before scoring again on the stroke of full time courtesy of Tom Symonds to snatch victory.
With the game hanging off a towering bomb from five-eighth Kieran Foran, the Sea Eagles managed to re-gather the ball and send the second rower over in the corner.
