North Queensland's mid-season surge continues, with the Cowboys grinding out a 24-12 NRL win over the freefalling Warriors on Saturday night in Townsville.
It was 12-12 at halftime after a dogged first half and, while the Cowboys never reached any great heights, they rolled on to a fourth-straight win without Johnathan Thurston.
The Warriors were also without their injured half Shaun Johnson.
North Queensland's forwards laid the platform, with Kiwi wrecking ball Jason Taumalolo at his brilliant best with 174m from 17 runs. Coen Hess also impressed with 130m.
Cowboys coach Paul Green said his side continued to find way to win without Thurston and injured co-captain Matt Scott.
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"I thought it was a pretty tough game. Obviously, they turned up to play and their season was on the line.
"We had to play well to beat them and I was really happy with the way we hung in there.
"We showed plenty of character towards the end, there were some huge efforts there and Gavin Cooper in particular with a couple of try-savers so, all-in-all, it was a good win."
The Warriors opened the scoring after 10 minutes when second-rower Bunty Afoa showed great speed to charge over from 30 metres out.
The Cowboys hit back quickly when Lachlan Coote hit Justin O'Neill with a great ball as the veteran broke his try-scoring duck for 2017.
The Cowboys edged ahead when recalled winger Javid Bowen pounced on a Jake Granville kick to put the home side ahead.
Warriors back-rower Simon Mannering then sliced through some poor Cowboys defence in the final minute of the half, with Issac Luke's conversion levelling the scores.
After the break, Cowboy Ethan Lowe collected an excellent Kyle Feldt offload to dive over for a try in the right corner.
In the final seconds, the 16,080 fans at 1300SMILES Stadium cheered as Bowen pounced on a loose ball and darted 80m metres to complete his double.
Warriors coach Steven Kearney hoped his players could build on their efforts for the rest of the season.
"It was one of those games, it was tit for tat and I was very pleased with the guys for their efforts on the night.
"With a minute to go, if the ball had have ended up in the right hands, we could've pushed through to extra time maybe and I was pleased with how the guys hung in there.
"We had a bit of a disrupted week with some guys pulling out through injury and the guys really got on with the job and gave themselves a real opportunity to win the match."
