Canterbury Bulldogs made a giant stride towards a top four finish after claiming a nervous, ugly and tense win over Manly Sea Eagles at ANZ Stadium.
A Josh Reynolds try in the second half of golden point sealed the 20-16 win over their 1995 grand final opponents to put the club four points above fifth-placed North Queensland with just three games to play. It was a frenetic finish to an otherwise error-riddled match that had many groaning with the prospect of extra time.
Six missed field goal attempts, four of them horrendous, highlighted the poor period before Tom Trbojevic appeared to have let the ball pass between his legs, effectively sinking his club's chance of making the top eight, giving the Bulldogs the match winner via Reynolds.
It was all the more costly for Manly who may have lost Dylan Walker for the season after suffering a shoulder injury. It began brightly for the visitors when Daly Cherry-Evans left the Bulldogs red faced after scoring the first try of the night, on the back of his own kick.
Canterbury fullback Will Hopoate always appeared too casual in taking down the high ball and was made to pay for that when Cherry-Evans pounced into the contest to make it 6-0.
It was a stroke of luck that brought Canterbury back into the contest delivered by the forehead of Josh Morris in a modern-day version of the 'Falcon' of Mario Fenech fame.
A pass ricocheted off centre Josh's head and into the path of his brother Brett who grounded the loose ball before Moses Mbye converted from the sideline to draw level.
There was nothing fortuitous about the try that put them into the lead as Brett Morris embarked on a superb individual run, beating five tacklers on his way to the line.
It was far from disciplined defending that held out the Sea Eagles but consistent penalties that frustrated Manly into submission. It took stern words from coach Trent Barrett to help them turn that pressure into points after the restart when Matt Wright reduced the deficit to two points. Jamie Lyon broke free down the left before finding his winger in support who finished the move out wide.
Stern words from Bulldogs coach Hasler also elicited a more organised response from the Canterbury side and, following a 12-pass move, Sam Perrett scored from the resulting play.
It was 16-all with as many minutes to play after Jorge Taufua scored from a Cherry-Evans kick and Lyon converted. The visitors almost stole the lead when Taufua crossed again, only to be found to have committed a double movement.
For the neutrals, it would have been better if that try was given, such were the poor field goal attempts from Lyon and Mbye that followed as desperation swept over both teams play.
After a series of poor attempts, it was little surprise to see Josh Reynolds take matters into his own hands, chipping and chasing for himself and when the ball spilled out of the hands of Cherry-Evans, Reynolds looked to have sealed the win. However, the video ref spotted a push in the back on the Manly half back.
Three more missed attempts followed before Reynolds finally had his moment. A calamitous error by Manly's Tom Trbojevic gave the Bulldogs five-eighth the match winner, missing his kick return to allow the ball to trickle into the in-goals where Reynolds sealed the win.