Canterbury have heaped further pressure on the coaching career of North Queensland boss Neil Henry, coming from behind to score a 36-26 victory and inflict the Cowboys’ fifth straight NRL loss.

The Cowboys looked the better side for the much of the game in Townsville on Saturday night and took a 20-12 lead with 30 minutes remaining.

But the Bulldogs racked up the next 24 points to storm into the top eight.

The four-try burst added further misery to the flailing Cowboys, who were missing star five-eighth Johnathan Thurston with a groin injury carried over from Wednesday night’s State of Origin match.

Halfback Robert Lui picked up the playmaking duties for the Cowboys and played his best since returning from a year-long suspension to have a role in all four of his team’s tries, including a consolation four-pointer of his own in the dying minutes.

Thurston’s absence was one of four changes made to the team, with hooker Rory Kostjasyn and winger Ashley Graham also ruled out to injury on game day.

The Bulldogs had three of their own pull out, with Josh Morris and Josh Reynolds coming into the team along with Tony Williams.

Bulldogs fullback Ben Barba backed up his two tries in the first half to lay on the final pass for Mitch Brown to put his team back in the game when the home side lead by eight points midway through the second half.

The wheels started to fall off for the Cowboys after that, with Williams, Greg Eastwood and Trent Hodkinson taking advantage of some Cowboys errors to easily run in for tries.

In another sour note for the Cowboys, replacement five-eighth Michael Morgan left the field after re-injuring his left shoulder.