Raiders pay heavy price for win as Shillington injured again

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Raiders pay heavy price for win as Shillington injured again

Canberra 25 Parramatta 12



MATCH STATS

AS bizarre as Canberra's season has been, it was only fitting that a quirky winning play sealed last night's much-needed 25-12 win against an equally desperate Parramatta Eels.

But the Raiders' fourth win of the season came at a massive cost, with representative prop David Shillington's hopes of a Queensland Origin recall dashed after he suffered a re-occurrence of the torn pectoral muscle which kept him out of the first two games of the series.

Shillington will have scans today to determine the extent of the damage, but Raiders officials suspect he will miss between four and six weeks.

It was the only downer for the Raiders, as underrated five-eighth Josh McCrone capped a superb individual performance with a 73rd-minute field goal to give the home side a seven-point buffer.

This was a one-pointer with a difference. McCrone's strike clipped the shoulder of Parramatta hooker Matt Keating on its way to falling over the crossbar.

Raiders halfback Sam Williams completed his double with three minutes on the clock to give the Canberra Stadium faithful a reward for turning out on a customarily chilly winter night.

The Raiders have made a habit this season of never doing anything easy.

In their past two games they gave up a 22-point lead against the Cowboys, followed by a stunning 24-point comeback at Suncorp Stadium before being sunk by a Peter Wallace golden-point field goal in their loss to the Broncos.

Desperate to move away from the foot of the table, the Raiders were full of intent in the early exchanges.

Centre Joel Thompson almost gave his team the perfect start when he dived over in the right corner in the eighth minute, only for the ball to be forced out by Eels fullback Jarryd Hayne.

The Eels suffered a blow when centre Ryan Morgan left the field with a hamstring injury and didn't return.

The Raiders were completely dominant, turning down three certain penalty goals to maintain the ascendancy. Pressure finally paid off in the 18th minute when Williams stepped his way past the Eels defence to score under the posts.

And when McCrone sliced his way with ease down the right, the Raiders were up 12-0 after 25 minutes and a rout was on the cards.

But inconsistency has been the Raiders' trademark in 2011 - the main reason they're in the lower reaches of the ladder - and while Jarrod Croker's penalty goal gave Canberra a 14-0 buffer at half-time, it only took five minutes after the interval for Keating to burrow his way under the posts to reduce the deficit.

The Raiders hit back almost straight away when fullback Nathan Massey, filling in admirably for NSW custodian Josh Dugan, touched down to extend the gap to 12 points.

Yet the Eels wouldn't go away. Damaging second-rower Taniela Lasalo's ball to put lock Ben Smith over to score brought the visitors back to within a converted try.

But that was as close as the Eels would get.

CANBERRA 25 (S Williams 2 N Massey J McCrone tries J Croker 4 goals J McCrone field goal) bt PARRAMATTA 12 (M Keating B Smith tries L Burt 2 goals) at Canberra Stadium. Referee: Jared Maxwell, Chris James. Crowd: 13,457.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald