Young prop Shannon Boyd says Canberra are working hard to overcome their poor starts and believes it’s only a matter of time before the NRL club’s fortunes turn around.

The Raiders have conceded a total of 50 points in the first 20 minutes of their last three games – and went on to lose all them.

In the three matches prior to that, however, they let slip just 26 points across the opening quarters and won.

Their recent run of defeats has seen them slip from top-four contenders to 10th on the NRL ladder, equal on points with Newcastle, who they face at Hunter Stadium on Saturday.

“Hopefully we can get a few better starts the next few rounds and we’ll be right,” said Boyd who’s played an important impact role off the bench in recent weeks.

“We’ve been doing lots of video on that sort of stuff and working hard at it.

“So it should turn around quite soon.”

The Knights are in a similar situation to the Raiders, having enjoyed a blistering start to the season with four wins in a row only to lose seven of their next eight games.

And Boyd knows that, like his side, they’ll be craving another victory this weekend.

“It’s like any team, as soon as you have a few losses, you work harder at the little things and try get it right again,” he said.

“They’re going to be hungry, we’re hungry, it should be a pretty good game.

“We just need to go in with the attitude that it’s all going to be alright, that we just need to lift and it’ll all come good again.”

Utility Jarrad Kennedy said composure and consistency was key to the Raiders’ resurgence.

“It’s only a couple of small things we’ve got to fix up,” he said.

“We’re not far off but we’ve just got to get some consistency and hopefully we’ll get there this weekend.”