Trent Hodkinson has compounded the New Zealand Warriors’ troubles with a late field goal to secure victory for the Canterbury Bulldogs at Eden Park.

In a week dominated by the departure of coach Matt Elliott and an undignified dispute between the club’s owners, a committed effort by the Warriors players made a good effort to put the focus back on rugby league.

But after taking an early 10-0 lead, Canterbury hung in the game and came back from eight points down with 12 minutes to go to tie the scores before Hodkinson sealed the victory.

The Warriors put prop Ben Matulino to the second row after an injury to Jayson Bukuya and it paid off early when two offloads in the first 25 minutes led to tries to Sam Tomkins and Manu Vatuvei.

But a mistake by Matulino after the second kickoff gave the Bulldogs a set of possession from which Sam Perrett strolled over, cutting the Warriors’ lead to 10-6 at the break.

Konrad Hurrell scored shortly after halftime following a Thomas Leuluai break, but Vatuvei’s mistake led to a Tony Williams try five minutes later, and Hodkinson’s conversion brought the score to 14-12.

Warriors captain Simon Mannering restored an eight-point lead a few minutes later, and they looked to secure the win with sustained pressure for the next five minutes.

But Canterbury held on in defence and went on the attack when Hodkinson picked up a loose Warriors pass 20m from his own line and ran 70m, leading to a try to Tim Lafai on the next play.

Scores were levelled with a Hodkinson penalty with six minutes to play, and after Leuluai missed a field goal, Hodkinson made no mistake at the other end.