The Warriors clinched a remarkable 30-24 NRL victory over Canterbury at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night with a thrilling try to five-eighth Lance Hohaia with 30 seconds left.

The visitors raced to a 24-12 lead early in the second half, before the Bulldogs rallied to tie the game up at 24-24.

Both teams had golden chances to win in the dying minutes before Hohaia started and finished a typically razzle-dazzle Warriors movement with the fulltime hooter just seconds away.

Hohaia, shifted from fullback to five-eighth before kick-off, passed out to makeshift centre Lewis Brown, who had room to move down the left-hand side.

Brown stepped inside opposite Jamal Idris before putting boot to ball in a last ditch attempt to steal victory before golden-point extra time.

The normally mistake-free Canterbury fullback Luke Patten fumbled the kick, with Brown regathering before popping a pass to Hohaia who raced away to score under the posts.

The Warriors looked like they would get away with the match with five minutes remaining when Brown charged for the line, only to drop the ball just short of the stripe after a brilliant try-saving tackle by winger Steve Turner.

Then up the opposite end of the field with just over three minutes left, Bulldogs halfback Brett Kimmorley had plenty of time to slot a field goal from right in front, 25 metres out, but sprayed it the right of the posts.

Ivan Cleary's side took a gamble before the game began, rushing giant winger Manu Vatuvei into their starting side, even though he wasn't expected back from a hamstring injury until next week.

Vatuvei ran strongly and offloaded beautifully throughout the first half, and scored the Warriors' second try in the 24th minute when he finished off a well-orchestrated backline move.

But the Kiwi international hobbled from the field just five minutes into the second half and didn't return.

As a result secondrower Brown shifted into the centres, pushing Brent Tate to the wing.

The Warriors looked set to run away with the victory when two tries early in the second half put them ahead by 12 points.

Unheralded halfback Maloney was instrumental in both - ghosting through some non-existent Bulldogs defence in the 45th minute, before finding Jacob Lillyman in support who ran away under the posts to score.

Then just three minutes later he put through another accurate kick close to Canterbury's line which was fumbled by Ben Barba, with winger Kevin Locke on hand to pick up the scraps and score.

But Patten's injection from the back helped the Bulldogs close the gap and tie the match up with 20 minutes still remaining.

Patten pounced on a Michael Ennis grubber in the 56th minute and then three minutes later he moved gracefully across field before sending Jamal Idris back inside on an angle to crash over and bring the scores level after Goodwin's conversion.

A brilliant solo effort by Canterbury super sub Ben Barba as the siren sounded for halftime, tied the score at the break 12-12 in what was a tight contest throughout.

Bulldogs coach Kevin Moore admitted his patience has come to an end after his team slipped to a fourth loss from five matches this season.

"Once again it's a game we should have won and probably for the first time, I just gave it to the boys a little bit," Moore said.

"I'm just disappointed in the fact that there's some things that I believe we've created around this club over the past 12-15 months that we've prided ourselves on, certainly on-field performance last year and they're the things we're lacking in at the moment.

"I'm a little bit sick of individually saying blokes tried hard but the simple fact is that as NRL footballers we're not performing as a team and we're not putting it together as a team.

"We need to aim up and we need to pull together as a unit and we need to be a lot better at playing as a fair dinkum footy side instead of as individuals."

Warriors coach Ivan Cleary was clearly a relieved man following the match.

"I was pretty happy when we scored put it that way," Cleary said.

"Every time we threw it to that left hand side in the second half it looked like we were going to do something ... it's funny sometimes how things just fall for you and I guess we got the luck tonight."

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