Canberra Raiders hold off spirited Illawara Dragons

St George Illawarra failed to produce a second miracle comeback in a week as Canberra's stranglehold on the red and whites ended the Dragons' slim NRL finals hopes with a 22-18 victory at WIN Stadium.

One of the NRL's most extraordinary hoodoos continued on Saturday night, the Dragons having now won only one of their past 17 matches against the Green Machine with their last victory over the Raiders coming in 2007.

Fullback Anthony Milford the star of the show as he outpointed former Canberra star Josh Dugan, who ended the game on the bench after copping a knee to the head in some friendly fire.

Raiders hold off Dragons  Image NRL.COM Photos

Milford came up with a crucial try as well as a vital take of a bomb late in the game when the Dragons threatened a repeat of Monday night's heroics when they scored three late tries to upset ladder-leaders South Sydney.

Any momentum the Dragons hoped to gain from the win over the Rabbitohs was snuffed out with two poor lapses either side of the halftime break.

The first dagger came in the 39th minute when a nicely worked set play sent Milford galloping downfield and Reece Robinson scored in the corner on the next play.

Two minutes after the restart, Shaun Berrigan waltzed over when the Dragons' markers went to sleep.

That gave the visitors a 16-6 lead, but when former Raider Bronson Harrison ran a brilliant line to go over out wide, the home side were within a converted try.

Just as it seemed the tide was turning Chase Stanley came up with a dropped ball inside his own 20 and Milford added another highlight to his impressive rookie campaign as he stepped around five defenders to score next to the posts.

The Dragons threatened late when Brett Morris latched onto an Adam Quinlan grubber eight minutes from fulltime.

The Raiders thought they had sewn it up when Glen Buttriss touched down only to be denied by the video referee for being offside.

AAP