By Daniel Gilhooly
The heartache continues.
As if things couldn't get worse for the Warriors, they somehow concocted an 18-16 loss to lowly Penrith today to sink to a sixth straight NRL defeat.
Up 16-12 with three minutes left on the clock, tired Warriors defence allowed centre Travis Robinson to cross out wide and bring the ball near the posts, from where Luke Walsh landed the winning goal.
It would have felt like another body blow to a Warriors side who picked up yet more injury problems and are now one loss away from matching their worst-ever season losing streak of seven, set in 2000.
The pressure will also mount on coach Brian McClennan, whose future at the club won't be assured by club management.
It was an important result for Penrith who, guided by halves Walsh and Lachlan Coote, lifted themselves off the bottom rung of the ladder that they shared with Parramatta coming into the round.
Penrith had lost seven of their last nine games coming in and the ugly nature of the match reflected the lowly status of both teams.
The Warriors were left to count their wounded again, with the injuries to their senior group playing a role in their slump.
They lost tough hooker Nathan Friend to an apparent dislocated shoulder in the 17th minute and were also without forward Sione Lousi for the entire second half after he took a heavy head knock. Several other Warriors needed treatment for ailments throughout the second spell.
Following heavy losses to the Sharks and Cowboys, this performance was a return to the Warriors' previous trends of letting leads slip.
They opened the scoring when centre Ben Henry fell on a Carlos Tuimavave grubber and it was 10-0 when halfback Shaun Johnson intercepted an attempted Michael Gordon cutout pass and raced 80m to touch down.
A period of Panthers pressure resulted in a try to Kevin Kingston three minutes before halftime after Coote accelerated into space.
Henry's converted try soon after halftime was cancelled out by the dangerous Coote with 20 minutes remaining when he spun out of a poor James Maloney missed tackle.
A small crowd of 11,000 was on hand to see captain Manu Vatuvei play his 150th game.
NZN