The Knights went toe-to-toe with Penrith for most of the contest on Saturday but were outdone in a handful of key moments to lose by just two points.

"Were they that much better than us? No," Brown said.

"I thought there was a couple of times there where if individuals worked a touch harder, we might be sitting here with a smile on our face.

"The dog and the bone I reckon - they got the bone a little bit more."

There were glimpses of brilliance from their spine in attack, including a mouth-watering two-man cutout from star five-eighth Kalyn Ponga for a first-half try.

But they also missed a handful of genuine chances, with Ponga, Connor Watson and Edrick Lee all getting over the line only to be denied.

And while Brown liked most of his team's defence, he was upset with the way they conceded two soft tries to Isaah Yeo and Frank Winterstein.

He urged for patience from supporters as the Knights continue to integrate a host of new faces into a side widely tipped to break their finals drought this year.

Major signing David Klemmer was arguably Newcastle's best, carrying the ball for 211 metres after going close to cracking the 200-metre barrier in round one.

"It's so early in the year. This time last week people were talking about how the Cowboys and Brisbane were no good," Brown said.

"And then we saw what happened from round one to round two.

"The reality for us is we've got seven or eight new faces in our team. And building what we're building, it was never going to be perfect earlier, that's for sure."

Australian Associated Press