Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart was left ruing a poor opening 25 minutes as the Green Machine's finals hopes look to be over after another agonising close loss.
If they'd played the first 25 like they did the rest of the game, it would have been a different story to the 26-22 loss to the Penrith Panthers at Canberra Stadium on Sunday.
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Raiders fan spits on referee
A Canberra fan was ejected from GIO Stadium after spitting at referee Ashley Klein.
And if winger Jordan Rapana's pass - under pressure as he fell to the ground after catching a bomb - to Dave Taylor was a few inches higher it could've been different story with the "Coal Train" potentially steaming over for the winner in the dying seconds.
But it wasn't there and the Raiders now need to win their last two and then rely on a raft of results going their way, with Manly, North Queensland and St George Illawarra needing to lose all their remaining games.
The match was also marred with a potential Raiders member ejected at half-time for allegedly spitting at the referees as they came from the field, with large portions of the 14,818 crowd unhappy with the officials.
Stuart slammed the fan's behaviour, but praised the way his team fought back into the game to hit the lead for the first-time in the second half, but said their start had let them down.
They trailed 14-4 after 25, following a Nathan Cleary try that made him the youngest person to score 200 points in a season.
Errors and a poor completion rate below 70 per cent were the story of the half for the Raiders.
Stuart was confident he wouldn't have any issues getting his team back up for Friday night's clash against Newcastle at Canberra Stadium.
"I was really happy with the way we got back into that game, we should never have been allowed to get back into it, an amazing effort to get back to a 22-20 lead," Stuart said.
"There was probably three tries there where we were disappointed with how they scored them, we're better than that.
"At the end of the day, the first 25 minutes of our game let us down ... if we had've played the first 25 minutes of the game the way we played the remainder of it we're probably not in this position."
A costly first half, where they trailed 20-10 after a strong Josh Mansour try just before the siren cancelled out the momentum the Green Machine looked like taking into the sheds following Josh Papalii's try from a great Taylor offload.
Panthers centre Waqa Blake and Raiders winger Nick Cotric both also scored, with Cotric bringing up his 16th of his debut season.
The Raiders flew out of the sheds with tries to Jack Wighton and Joe Tapine to hit the lead in the 55th minute and had all the momentum when halfback Aidan Sezer produced a brilliant 40-20 kick.
But they just couldn't crack the Panthers when they had them camped on their own line for several sets in a row.
Then the momentum swung the visitor's way off the back of a dangerous tackle on Mansour near their own line.
It allowed them to march down the field and pin the Raiders down on their own line for repeat sets.
Eventually the Canberra wall cracked, with Tyrone May reaching out to score what turned out to be the winner with seven minutes remaining.
The Raiders had one last crack, but Rapana couldn't get the ball to Taylor after he jumped high for a Blake Austin bomb.
"I was extremely proud, I thought it was obviously one of our best efforts under the circumstances with the penalty count [8-3 to the Raiders] and the weight of possession against us in that second half we had to win without the ball," Panthers coach Anthony Griffin said.
The Raiders now need the Panthers to extend their seven-game winning streak by beating both the Dragons and Manly in the last two games.
PENRITH PANTHERS 26 (Waqa Blake, Nathan Cleary, Josh Mansour, Tyrone May tries; Cleary 5 goals) bt CANBERRA RAIDERS 22 (Nick Cotric, Josh Papalii, Jack Wighton, Joe Tapine tries; Jarrod Croker 3 goals) at Canberra Stadium. Referees: Ashley Klein, Alan Shortall. Crowd: 14,818.