Canberra have claimed third spot on the NRL ladder after six rounds in the biggest surprise from the early part of the season after Jamal Fogarty booted them to a 21-20 thriller over the Gold Coast in the 90th minute at GIO Stadium on Sunday night.

After Kieran Foran had missed with two field goal attempts, Fogarty drilled his shot to sink the gallant Titans after a long break upfield from rookie halves partner Ethan Strange.

It was a cruel end for Fogarty’s former club after Gold Coast forced extra time when winger Alofiana Khan-Pereira touched down in the left corner in the 80th minute and stopgap goalkicker Brian Kelly landed the sideline conversion.

The goal was the first of Kelly’s eight-year NRL career after regular kicker Jayden Campbell had been forced off with a leg injury.

But it was Fogarty who proved the difference with a sweetly struck one-pointer with just a few seconds left in the second period of extra time.

The Raiders improved their record to 4-2 and despite most pundits expecting them to fade in 2024 after Jack Wighton’s defection to Souths, the Ricky Stuart-coached side is silencing their critics. They were not in top gear against the Titans but the Green Machine did enough to consign their opponents to a fifth straight loss to start the year.

Gold Coast at least ended their nine-game run of conceding 28 points in a match, which was an unwanted first in premiership history.

Raiders fullback Chevy Stewart played strongly in his NRL debut, filling in for injured veteran Jordan Rapana. He charged down a Foran field goal in the 87th minute to deny the Titans victory.

Both teams started the match with a few scratchy errors before the Raiders broke the deadlock in the 18th minute when winger James Schiller slid over for a 6-0 lead.

Second-rower Hudson Young doubled the home side’s lead when he muscled his way over the stripe off an inside pass from Strange.

Gold Coast were staring down the barrel of another heavy defeat but they regrouped and halved the deficit just before half-time when prop Jaimin Jolliffe barged over from close range.

They were just two behind a few minutes into the second half when Harley Smith-Shields touched down against his former club when he cleaned up the crumbs after Canberra failed to clear a grubber in the in-goal area.

A Fogarty penalty goal gave Canberra a four-point buffer and the Titans looked set to grab the lead on the hour mark when Khan-Pereira backed up a long-range break to score out wide.

But the Bunker intervened after hooker Chris Randall was found to have stopped in the defensive line, impeding Canberra as the Titans surged upfield.

Schiller continued his impressive breakout season when he made it 20-10 in the 69th minute after he made the most of a botched Titans line drop-out.

Khan-Pereira put the Titans back in the contest with four minutes to go when he sped onto a Brian Kelly grubber before repeating the dose with another diving effort in the left corner with seconds on the clock to send the match into extra time.