Holland heroics help 'Dogs down Panthers

v BYE

CANTERBURY centre Kerrod Holland provided the heroics in his first game for the club as the Bulldogs snatched an 18-16 victory over Penrith at Pepper Stadium on Thursday night.

Holland showed nerves of steel after the full-time siren to convert an 80th minute Moses Mbye try and put the Dogs in front for the first time all match and send the majority of the 11,125 fans home heartbroken.

"I knew it was going over, it was always going over," he said.

"The crowd was outstanding and even though we're at Penrith, the Bulldogs crowd brought us home.

"I knew we had them as soon as he (Mbye) went over.

The Bulldogs trailed 14-0 just before half-time before they scrapped and ground their way back into the contest.

The Panthers opened the scoring in the fourth minute when Dean Whare won the race to a Jamie Soward kick to give the home side a perfect start.

Seven minutes later Sam McKendry wrestled his way across the line, taking advantage of some soft Bulldogs goal-line defence to put the home side out by an even dozen.

Bulldogs fullback Will Hopoate opened his sides account when he took advantage of some clever lead-up work from Sam Kasiano which put halfback Moses Mbye into space.

Mbye drew the fullback before he sent Hopoate on his way.

In the second half it was all Mbye who scored two tries, the last of which was scored in the shadows of full-time before Holland capped off his debut game with a conversion that won the game for his side.

"You put it down to all the boys because they worked hard to get us down that end and I was fortunate enough to cross the line and then Kerrod slotted it from out wide," Mbye said.

"It's an 80 minute game and you've got to stay in it when it's not going your way because there's a lot of momentum shifts."

Penrith hooker Peter Wallace lamented one that got away.

"It was a big effort by all the boys, we had a short turnaround from last week and it's a tough one to finish with," he said.

"We pushed the pass and our last kick opportunity went dead so it's disappointing, but we'll take a lot out of it."

Next week the Panthers take on Brisbane at home on Saturday night while the Bulldogs get back to their comfy ANZ Stadium digs when they host local rivals Parramatta on Friday night.