KNIGHTS coach Adam O'Brien is confident his team's for-and-against statistics will not return to haunt them in the race for the NRL play-offs.
With four regular-season rounds remaining, Newcastle are one of seven teams battling it out for the last two spots in the top eight, but they have the worst differential of any of those sides.
The Knights are ninth on 20 points, the same tally as Gold Coast (seventh) and Canberra (eighth), ahead of Cronulla and St George Illawarra on 18 points and the Warriors and Wests Tigers on 16.
Newcastle have scored 353 points in 20 games and conceded 492, giving them a for-and-against record of minus-139.
Only four teams in this year's competition have racked up worse numbers, and not surprisingly they occupy the bottom four rungs on the ladder.
For-and-against is used as a tiebreaker when teams finish equal on competition points, but O'Brien is optimistic it will be "irrelevant" for the Knights if they win their next four matches.
Newcastle have a comparatively favourable run into the finals, starting with Cronulla on Sunday, followed by Canterbury, Gold Coast and Brisbane.
"We're not too worried about for-and-against, at the moment," O'Brien told the Newcastle Herald.
"The mindset we need is to not go looking past this week. We need to control what we can, which is our result each week.
"Getting wins each week will take care of the for-and-against. So we're not looking too far down the track. We just need to get this week right and prepare really well for the Sharks."
Newcastle had an ideal opportunity to improve their differential, only to concede a flurry of late tries in their back-to-back wins against Canberra (34-24) and Brisbane (28-20).
"The big thing is keeping focused in defence," O'Brien said.
The last two games, we've defended really well for 60 minutes. We've had some lapses towards the end and leaked some points, which obviously reflects on our 'against' column.
"So it's important we stay focused and defend really well."
O'Brien admitted Newcastle's head-to-head showdowns with fellow top-eight aspirants Cronulla and Gold Coast would be crucial in the tightrope walk into the finals.
"They're really important games, starting this week with the Sharks," he said.
"They're very similar teams. They like to attack and throw a lot at you, so we'll need to defend well against both those teams."
O'Brien will field his full-strength "spine" on Sunday for only the second time this season and has no doubt they will improve with each training session.
He also hopes the 10-day turnaround will allow his players to recover and recharge after playing both the Raiders and Broncos in the space of four days.
Meanwhile, Newcastle's high-performance staff will monitor Lachlan Fitzgibbon after he aggravated a shoulder injury against Brisbane.
The back-rower underwent shoulder surgery in the pre-season and is awaiting the result of further scans.
There is a chance he may not play again this season, but O'Brien said: "We're not there yet."
The injury appears unlikely to have any bearing on Fitzgibbon's contract negotiations with Newcastle. The 27-year-old has played in 89 NRL game for his home-town club.
