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Newcastle are on the cusp of missing the NRL finals for a sixth consecutive year after slumping to their sixth defeat in a row.

Newcastle coach Nathan Brown admits his team's NRL finals fate is now in the hands of their rivals after slumping to their sixth straight loss of the season.

Saturday's frustrating six-point defeat to Parramatta has left the Knights three points behind the top eight in 12th spot with four games remaining.

In Newcastle's favour is the fact that two of them are home games against lowly North Queensland and last-placed Gold Coast in three weeks.

And in between is a road trip to Campbelltown to face Wests Tigers, who are two points above them in tenth position.

Their final clash is with Penrith, who currently sit in seventh spot.

But another defeat would just about put the Knights out of their misery and consign them to a sobering sixth consecutive year out of September action.

"It's going to be hard from a point of view of we're probably not going to control our way and destiny now," Brown said.

"(Saturday night) if we won we certainly controlled our own.

"With the way the competition is, at the end of the day, anything's possible.

"All we can do is bring the energy we brought (Saturday night) to the Cowboys game and do our best to get the result and see what happens with other games.

"One positive we certainly do play sides that are in and around us. So if you win those games... but we're not in control of ourselves now."

Brown pleased to see plenty of fight from his team against the Eels, who enjoyed a 41-8 advantage in plays inside the opposition 20-metre line.

Parramatta also had over triples the Knights' 27 plays inside the opposition half, and were limited to just one more try than their visitors.

However Brown was left to bemoan a seven defeat of less than ten points.

"We've lost six by an average of 3.8 points at home. So you're dealing with fine margins. But there's a reason why it keeps happening," Brown said.

"It's not bad luck, that's for sure.

"I've got two to three strong views there on why we've lost close games, (but) that's not for public. I've had that for a number of weeks now.

"There's some things there we can do a little better, we've got a few ideas there."