After leading the way in a golden-point victory over Manly in round one, star recruits Mitchell Pearce and Kalyn Ponga were again the catalysts.

The former Sydney Roosters ace dished off the winning try to Sione Mata'utia in the 73rd minute to break the Raiders' hearts.

It was their second loss in a row by the same margin, having gone down 30-28 to Gold Coast in round one.

Newcastle trailed by eight points with about 18 minutes to go when Raiders skipper Jarrod Croker converted one of his own tries for the home side to lead 28-20.

However the Knights finally got their hands on the ball after Canberra had gorged on 65 per cent of possession late in the first half, with another former Rooster in Connor Watson crossing and Ponga converting to make it 28-26.

The Raiders had their chances in the dying minutes to regain the lead, mounting a fierce final attack but the Knights' defence held out.

Aidan Guerra, Lachlan Fitzgibbon and Tautau Moga joined Mata'utia and Watson in crossing for the victorious Knights.

Ponga had another electric outing, creating chances aplenty to worry the Raiders' defence and he was deadly accurate with the boot.

Newcastle coach Nathan Brown said it was a courageous win on the road.

"We should be proud of the effort to come here under a bit of adversity to fight back and win," he said.

"I think it was a 7-1 penalty count against us in the second half against Canberra in Canberra, a side with a lot of good attacking players."

Both sides took a hit to their playing stocks in the first half, with Mitchell Barnett failing a head injury assessment following an early collision with Canberra forward Shannon Boyd.

The Raiders' Joseph Leilua also found himself out of the game after being taken off on a stretcher with an ankle injury.

Warriors recruit Charlie Gubb suffered a groin injury after coming on for a brief stint in the second half in his Raiders debut.

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart said after the game it wasn't "looking good" for Gubb and Leilua and also flagged two further injuries but didn't reveal who they were.

The Raiders host the Warriors on Saturday and Stuart said his group needed to stay strong.

"It's not all about next week, every game is a really important game, but it's about making sure we don't lose all that effort and desire that's there," Stuart said.

"It's just not happening for us at the moment and there's little pieces of play not going our away and if they do we're sitting here a a lot happier."

Elliott Whitehead scored a pair of tries and was the Raiders' best.

Australian Associated Press