Cowboys come up short yet again

The Penrith Panthers have won a hard fought contest, defeating the Cowboys 22-18 in Townsville this evening. Whilst the game never reached any great heights, the closeness of the contest ensured the fans got their moneys worth although some may ask for a refund after sitting through another demoralising loss.

The match was a see sawing battle with the lead changing sides on several occasions but the class of the Panthers won out in the end, minus many of their stars who are on Origin duty. No Wesser, Rooney, Lewis, Gower, Waterhouse and Ross but the Panthers still had the big name players in Priddis, Lang, Campbell and Girdler to see the mountain men home and more importantly, they keep their place in the top four.

The Cowboys also had several players out on Origin duty and the loss sees the Cowboys start to lose touch with the top eight and another home loss makes their mountain that much steeper to climb. The Cowboys had their moments but soft defence close to their line at times. In ten years nothing much has changed up north, only the losing margin seems to be slowly decreasing so there is hope Cowboys fans, it will just take a while.

Scorers: PANTHERS 22 Tries: Whatuira, Puletua, Roberts Goals: Girdler 5/5 defeated COWBOYS 18 Tries: Morrison, Sweeney, Jensen Goals: Hannay 3/5

Dairy Farmers Stadium Referee: Steve Clark

By the clock:

1st min: Kickoff! We are underway in Townsville.

11th min: PENALTY GOAL - Cowboys. Josh Hannay makes no mistake and gives the home team the early lead. Cowboys 2-0.

16th min: TRY - Panthers. Paul Whatuira opens the Panthers account with a good try. Conversion successful. Panthers 6-2.

20th min: PENALTY GOAL - Panthers. Ryan Girlder extends the Panthers lead to a converted try. Panthers 8-2.

26th min: TRY - Cowboys. Glenn Morrison scores the equaliser and gives the Origin selectors food for thought.Conversion successful. 8 all.

30th min: TRY - Cowboys. Neil Sweeney gets a tgry for the Cowboys to give them a handy lead coming up to half time. Conversion unsuccessful. Cowboys 12-8.

38th min: PENALTY GOAL - Cowboys. Josh Hannay gives the Cowboys a siux point lead at the main break. Can they hold the Panthers for the second stanza or will we see another golden point thriller like last year? Cowboys 14-8.

47th min: TRY - Cowboys. Rod Jensen extends the Cowboys lead and are looking pretty good. Conversion unsuccessful. Cowboys 18-8.

51st min: TRY - Panthers. The men in black hit straight back with a try to the rampaging Tony Puletua. Conversion successful. Cowboys 18-14.

62nd min: TRY - Panthers. Amos Roberts gives the Panthers thelead in a great see-sawing battle that looks to be going right down to the wire. Conversion successful. Panthers 20-18.

80 min: PENALTY GOAL - Panthers. Ryan Girdler. Panthers 22-18

Full time: Penrith a very close match and prove they will be a force to be reckoned with even without their stars on deck. ----------------------------------------- Leagueunlimited.com players of the match: 3 - T Puletua (Panthers) 2 - J Hannay (Cowboys) 1 - R Girdler (Panthers) -----------------------------------------