Canberra captain David Shillington believes his side must play semi-finals style football against league leaders Canterbury to continue their late run for the playoffs.

The Raiders won their third straight match, 24-20 against Sydney Roosters in Canberra on Saturday.

The victory put the Raiders equal on points with seventh-placed Brisbane and eighth-placed Wests Tigers but in ninth on points difference.

The Raiders have a points differential of minus 39, putting them behind the Tigers (-1) and Broncos (37).

Shillington said his side had a “bit of momentum” heading into Friday’s match against the Bulldogs, who are on a 12-game winning streak.

“We are going to have to play semi-finals type footy,” Shillington said.

“We have been talking about it for a while, but we haven’t been quite there.”

He said the side had a short turnaround to Friday’s match at Canberra Stadium.

“Hopefully the boys will take care of all the bumps and bruises,” he said.

Fullback Josh Dugan will play despite receiving several stitches after Roosters counterpart Anthony Minichiello was sent-off for a forearm to the Canberra player’s head.

Prop Tom Learoyd-Lahrs is set to return from a torn hamstring suffered in late July.

Raiders coach David Furner dismissed comparisons with the club’s charge to the finals in 2010.

A victory on Friday would be the first time the Raiders have won four straight since its run to qualify for the 2010 finals.

“It’s Friday’s game, that is all we have to worry about,” Furner said.

Furner was impressed with his side maintaining possession in the first half but a worry ahead of the Bulldogs match would have been the turnovers during the second 40 minutes.

“You have to make sides earn it and in the first half we did that,” he said.

“There were some errors there which were cheap turnovers.”