It was nearly two years in the making, but North Queensland finally registered back-to-back NRL wins with a 26-18 victory over Canberra in Townsville on Saturday night.

The Raiders came back strong after a bleak first half, when the hosts led 24-6 and looked to be cruising towards their third success at Dairy Farmers Stadium this year.

A combination of North Queensland jitters and a improved showing from the Raiders saw the game go to the wire.

Cowboys fullback Matt Bowen was the hero in the dying stages, producing a fine cover tackle on Daniel Vidot with three minutes to play to put the winger into touch just short of the line.

Canberra's only answer to a confident and free-flowing Cowboys' performance in the opening stanza was to find ways to make the bad even worse.

Their first two restarts from North Queensland tries gave possession right back to the hosts.

The Green Machine was also left to nurse a few self-imposed bruises with Joel Thompson left groggy after Blake Ferguson clattered into his teammate's head when Scott Bolton crashed over for the Cowboys' second try in the 16th minute.

Ferguson then darted over for a try to reduce the deficit, but undid all of his good work playing the ball into no-man's land, allowing Johnathan Thurston to bolt from dummy half to extend the lead to 24-6 at halftime.

North Queensland centurion Glenn Hall made his milestone game one to savour, collecting a ricocheting Thurston kick, before showing his power to barge through a flatfooted defence to score.

Canberra wonderkid Sam Williams, in just his second game, kicked impressively for the spring-heeled Jarrod Croker to open the scoring in the second half, reducing the advantage to 12 points.

But the revival was stalled when Williams was sinbinned for a professional foul on Kalifa Faifai-Loa when the Cowboy made an impressive break.

Thurston lined up to give North Queensland a buffer with a penalty goal with 15 minutes remaining.

Canberra managed to regather and cut the margin back to eight when Ferguson finished a finely crafted attack with his second try in the 71st minute.

Thurston's first-half try not only proved decisive in the win, it left the visitors fuming.

Cowboys coach Neil Henry put it down to one of a host of his skipper's "big plays", but he readily admitted that the botched attempt of a pick-up from Ferguson turned into a fortuitous grubber kick for Thurston, with the Raiders appealing for a knock-on.

"I don't know," was Henry's initial response when questioned about the video referees' verdict.

"He kicked it ... he tried to pick it up but kicked it with his foot and play on.

"There are a few decisions like that, benefit of the doubt tries, where it's not conclusive which way it goes. I suppose it goes with the attacking team."

Canberra co-captain David Shillington said it was a game-breaking moment and added insult to injury for a scrappy opening half.

"I definitely thought knock-on," Shillington said.

"I thought our player was trying to get to the play of the ball and he was held down, so that is a penalty straight away."

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