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Raiders recover to muzzle Dogs

Canberra lives to fight another day in 2010 after seeing off Canterbury 28-14 in a slogging NRL encounter at the Olympic stadium on Saturday.

Breakaway tries in the second half from the impressive Jarrod Croker, Josh McCrone and Daniel Vidot effort helped the Raiders come from behind to maintain hope of a first finals campaign Golden Goose Sneakers since 2008.

Four-pointers from Andrew Ryan, Bryson Goodwin and Junior Tia-Kilifi had given Canterbury a 14-12 lead at the break, but Kevin Moore's side struggled in attack in the second period as the Green Machine secured a fifth win in six games.

Skipper Tongue told Grandstand that the Bulldogs, guided by veteran playmaker Brett Kimmorley, gave the Raiders a real run for their money.

"I think Noddy was ... playing with some width, and they were really testing out our right edge defence there," he said.

"We knew that they were going to shift the ball a little bit and it's hard to defend [when they're] going well in the middle, going forward well.

"[They] attracted the numbers in around the ball and just shifted to our edges, and they got the better of us in the first half.

"But credit to the boys once again - we had a shut-out last week against the Panthers and we did it again today, so a lot of positives to come out of the game again."

Croker, who finished with a personal haul of 14 points, put the Raiders in front with a 90m effort seven minutes after half-time and the visitors secured the points when McCrone was on hand to grab Terry Campese's pass following a long-range run from his skipper, after Vidot had scored.

It was another disappointing display from the Bulldogs, whose season ended last week with defeat to Newcastle, although their cause was not helped by the late withdrawals of utility Ben Barba (eye injury) and full-back Luke Patten (back).

The hosts recovered well from a slow start to hit back with three tries in the opening period after Josh Dugan had put the Raiders in front in his side's opening set, before Tongue dived over on the stroke of half-time to close the gap to two points.

Canberra prop Scott Logan said that his side's second half strategy stemmed not from a blasting in the dressing rooms at half-time, but a more gentle approach.

"Two weeks in a row we've gone in and the talks been really composed in the sheds," he said.

"The first half there we just made some crucial errors that cost us, and we just went back to the basics in the second half and got back in the arm wrestle.

"We talked about how it was our mistakes that were costing us and just about going back to our game plan and keeping it simple and that's what we did."

The Raiders move to 11th spot, two wins out of the eight, but the Knights could still jolt David Furner's men back down to 12th if they beat the Warriors in New Zealand on Sunday.

Logan made no promises about Canberra's finals chances.

"You never know," he said.

"Momentum's a good thing and we've certainly got a bit at the moment, so we'll just try to play consistent and see what happens."

Earlier, Dugan stepped past two tackles and danced his way to the line with Croker adding the extras with just three minutes on the clock, to give his side the perfect start.

The Bulldogs responded in positive fashion in the ninth minute with skipper Ryan going over.

Ryan looked to have added his second a minute later, only to be denied by the video ref Russell Smith for a double movement as he lurched his way to the line.

Smith was brought into action again for again for Canterbury's second try, but this time he ruled in the affirmative after Goodwin showed great athleticism to get behind the dithering Daniel Vidot and grasp Ben Roberts' grubber kick.

The hosts extended their lead further when https://www.goldengooseshoesit.com/ Tia-Kilifi scored in the right corner, with the former Penrith man getting the final touch after the ball went through four pairs of hands.

Raiders: 28 (J Croker, J Dugan, J McCrone, A Tongue, D Vidot tries; J Croker 4/5 conversions)

Bulldogs: 14 (B Goodwin, A Ryan, J Tia-Kilifi tries; B Goodwin 1/3 conversions)

- AAP/ABC