Winger Will Tupou has emerged as a hero as North Queensland snapped a four-game losing streak in dramatic fashion, beating Newcastle 28-24 in a golden point thriller at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Saturday night.

For the second home game in a row, North Queensland were forced to watch a sizeable lead evaporate in the dying stages of the game, Fijian flyer Akuila Uate and re-called centre Cooper Vuna helping to draw the teams level with two minutes to go.

But it was Tupou who had the crowd of 12,146 in raptures when he tip-toed his way along the sideline in the third minute of golden point to plant the ball in the left corner.

The final pass from Willie Tonga to the flying winger had Newcastle coach Rick Stone baffled.

"I'm a bit disappointed," he said.

"I think the pass was forward, I was pretty much in line with that.

"They might say the same about our last try as well but it's disappointing when you're in line with a pass like that and you see that it's definitely a forward pass."

Cowboys coach Neil Henry agreed that both passes were line-ball and was happy for both to be let go.

Uate put in a strong performance on the left edge for the Knights with several incisive runs including an easy beat on Cowboys skipper Johnathan Thurston to score just before the halftime break.

He also set up the nervous finish for the Cowboys, finishing a sweeping backline movement with less than seven minutes on the clock to bring the Knights back to within six points before Vuna and Gidley's efforts.

Departing North Queensland lock Luke O'Donnell played a starring role in the win, scoring two tries and becoming involved in everything in just his second game back from his Origin II suspension.

Isaac De Gois' 95th NRL game was marred in a bloody fashion, the Knights hooker helped from the field in the 55th minute after an ugly head clash with Cowboy Matt Scott, compounded by an accidental boot to the face from teammate Matt Hilder. He returned late in the game.

James McManus was also forced from the field with a grade two medial injury and Ben Rogers suffered an ankle complaint.

Young Cowboys second-rower Dane Hogan had to be medi-cabbed off the field nine minutes from fulltime with a suspected neck injury following a tackle attempt on Gidley gone wrong but it was only precautionary and he was fine after the game.

Newcastle were first on the board when halfback Jarrod Mullen found some lax defence on the Cowboys 20m line and sliced through before passing to Ben Rogers, Gidley's conversion opening up a 6-0 lead.

But the Cowboys pressed in attack as errors crept into the Novocastrians' game, eventually seeing the scores level in the 24th minute though a soft O'Donnell try.

Watts, back from a one week suspension got the North Queenslanders back in front when he kicked to the left corner where a wicked bounce beat Uate and allowed the utility to touch down.

Thurston's conversion gave them a 12-6 lead.

But the flashy Fijian made up for it in the shadows of the break with a scything run from the halfway line after beating Thurston all ends up, Gidley knocking over the extras to tie up the scores.

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