The Raiders had the NRL's hottest team on the ropes before the North Queensland Cowboys stormed back to extend Canberra's Townsville misery.

Chasing their first win in Townsville since 2006, the Raiders silenced the Cowboys faithful when they ran away to an 18-0 lead in the opening half.

But a brilliant Cowboys fightback led by Johnathan Thurston secured a 32-24 victory in front of a crowd of 16,207 on Saturday night.

The Raiders (8-11) remain outside the top eight and will now have to win at least four of their last five games to reach the finals.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys (15-4) have equalled the highest amount of competition points in the club's 21-year history in search of their maiden premiership.

They have won 15 of their past 16 games.

The Raiders are still in a decent position to reach the finals given the don't play any team above them on the ladder for the rest of the season.

However, they will be sweating on the results of star five-eighth Blake Austin's dangerous tackle charge, while winger Edrick Lee was also put on report for tripping.

Thurston responded after having a quiet game by his lofty standards in Monday night's win against the Parramatta Eels.

The Raiders knew they needed to get out of the blocks quickly as they tried to adjust to the drastic change in temperature in Townsville.

They did just that, scoring the first three tries of the game before the Cowboys stormed their way back into the contest.

After Michael Morgan scored a minute before half-time to give the home side valuable momentum going into the sheds, Thurston put Gavin Cooper over the line with a trademark move.

The Raiders were akin to a 50-1 longshot in the Melbourne Cup - doing their level best to hang on for the final 800 metres as the favourites charged home.

But they started to wilt under their own errors and the Townsville heat.

An attempted offload from David Shillington came off Thurston's knee, bounced into James Tamou and ended up with Antonio Winterstein, who raced away to score.

What came next was classic Thurston.

The champion halfback threw a miracle pass around the back of a Raiders defender to put Jake Granville under the posts as the Cowboys hit the lead for the first time.

Winterstein crossed for his double as the Cowboys twisted the knife.

Two Thurston penalty goals extended the lead to 14 points before Kurt Baptiste scored a consolation try in the final minute.

The Raiders received a boost before kick-off with halfback Sam Williams a late addition, returning earlier than expected from a partially torn pectoral muscle.

It was fullback Jack Wighton who made an early impact, finding space through the defence to open the scoring for the visitors.

The Raiders continued to apply the pressure. Only a late touch from Lachlan Coote prevented Jordan Rapana from winning the race to Austin's clever kick in-goal.

Wighton was making his presence felt, throwing a beautiful pass to Edrick Lee, who stretched out on the left wing to dive over in the corner.

The crowd was stunned with their team down 10-0 after 16 minutes.

Papalii charged over the top of Thurston to put the Raiders on the attack yet again.

Williams then put in a chip kick close to the line, Wighton jumping the highest to tap the ball back to allow Sia Soliola to stroll over under the posts.

The Cowboys were off their game. Lachlan Coote spilled a bomb on his own tryline without a defender close to him.

A Croker penalty goal extended the Raiders' lead to three converted tries at 18-0.

NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 32 (Antonio Winterstein 2, Gavin Cooper, Jake Granville, Michael Morgan tries; Johnathan Thurston 6 goals) bt CANBERRA RAIDERS 24 (Kurt Baptiste, Edrick Lee, Sia Soliola, Jack Wighton tries; Jarrod Croker 4 goals) at 1300SMILES Stadium on Saturday night. Referees: Gerard Sutton, David Munro. Crowd: 16,207.