Veteran halfback Brett Kimmorley says it is good the Bulldogs aren't peaking just yet, but warns they could get blown away by North Queensland next Friday if they play badly.

The Bulldogs clung onto second spot with a gritty 23-20 win over the fast-finishing Canberra at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.

The Sydney club appeared to be cruising when they led 21-10 with half an hour to go.

However, the spirited Raiders cut the deficit with one point with just under 10 minutes remaining and five-eighth Terry Campese narrowly missed with a conversion attempt which would have given them the lead.

Ultimately the Bulldogs secured their victory with a Hazem El Masri penalty in the closing seconds.

Kimmorley was instrumental in the victory, throwing the final pass for two of their four tries, scoring one himself and kicking an important field goal right on halftime.

Kimmorley and Bulldogs coach Kevin Moore said their team needed to "fine-tune" their game over the last four weeks of the regular season following Saturday's patchy performance.

"Hopefully we start fine-tuning and getting rid of some of the mistakes, but keeping all the good parts we've got," Kimmorley told AAP.

"We're not peaking, which is good. We're doing enough to win football games.

"We need to slowly get rid of those bad phases and just keep working on the good phases."

Moore was pleased the Bulldogs squeezed out yet another close win and felt they needed to concentrate on eliminating errors by individuals.

The Bulldogs' next assignment is against North Queensland, with Kimmorley and captain Andrew Ryan warning of the consequences if their side doesn't lift their game.

"(Johnathan) Thurston and (Matt) Bowen seem to be hitting their straps and they are at home," Kimmorley said.

"It's another semi-final type of football, getting rid of some of the mistakes going up there.

"Playing them up there, if we play bad they will blow us away."

Ryan says it's vital the Bulldogs put together an 80-minute performance.

"We're going to have to next week against North Queensland in Townsville otherwise they could put some points past us," the forward said.

Having lost narrowly to the Bulldogs, the Raiders were looking forward to the challenge of hosting the ladder-leading Dragons next Saturday.

"The players are devastated," Canberra coach David Furner said.

"They obviously would have liked that win (against the Bulldogs). We've got to get over it and look at the challenge next week.

"If you're talking about testing yourself, obviously they are the number one side and they are the form side and we've got a good challenge."

Furner drew encouragement from the performances of young fullback Josh Dugan and utility Joel Thompson, who scored a fine try after replacing injured centre Joel Monaghan.

Thompson hyper extended an elbow and Monaghan could be in doubt for next week after suffering a leg injury.

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