The Dragons celebrated their 100th game at WIN Stadium with a much needed 12-4 win over Manly in front of 12,087 fans on Saturday night.

Criticised for starting poorly in their opening three matches, the Dragons shot out of the blocks to lead 10-0 after 20 minutes and forced the visitors to wait until the 59th minute for their first points in a win that leaves them 2-2 ahead of a tough road trip to face an undefeated Newcastle outfit on Saturday.

Manly were awful in comparison completing just eight of 14 sets to hand the Dragons 63 per cent of first half possession and were lucky not to find themselves trailing by more at the break.

The poor performance was not the only concern to come out of the match for Manly coach Geoff Toovey with Dunamis Lui placed on report for a high shot on Dragons forward Trent Merrin and skipper Jamie Lyon failing to finish the match with an apparent recurrence of the groin injury that kept him out of their loss to the Bulldogs last week. Prop Josh Starling (knee), back-rower Feleti Mateo (ankle) and halfback Daly Cherry-Evans (concussion) also failed to finish the match.

Perhaps remembering the very public taunts directed at them by Willie Mason in round 26 last year the Dragons big men dominated up front with Merrin, Mike Cooper and Leeson Ah Mau eating up the metres in the first half. Mason was quiet in comparison with just three carries for 24 metres in the first stanza to finish a modest tally of six runs and 47 metres for the match. 

The Dragons were on the board in the fourth minute when Gareth Widdop landed a penalty goal to take a 2-0 lead. They extended their lead five minutes later when Jason Nightingale finished off some slick work from Josh Dugan who produced a deft flick pass to put his skipper across in the right-hand corner. Widdop's sideline conversion gave the Dragons a 8-0 lead after just 11 minutes. 

Lui's 22nd minute for a high shot on Merrin allowed the Dragons to march up the field and kick another penalty goal to extend their lead to 10-0, 15 minutes before the break. 

Chasing points the Sea Eagles came out firing in the second half and looked to have hit back when Peta Hiku crossed out wide eight minutes afte the resumption. Referee Gavin Badger sent the try upstairs with replays showing the Kiwi International failed to ground the ball.

Manly finally broke through in the 59th minute when Brayden Wiliame - who was a late replacement for Kiwi Test centre Steve Matai - won the race to a well-weighted Kieran Foran grubber in the Dragons in-goal.

Daly Cherry-Evans hit the upright with the routine conversion attempt to leave the Dragons with a six-point buffer at 10-4 heading into the final quarter. Cherry-Evans atoned minutes later with a 40-20 to put his side within reach of an equaliser but the Sea Eagles couldn't make the home side pay with Widdop's third penalty goal 11 minutes from time sealing the 12-4 win.