One second later Emus knock-on and with that handling error came an end to the greens’ winning streak against the Bathurst outfit.

The Bulldogs held on in the time that remained to post a 39-35 win at Ashwood Park, the match certainly having lived up to a top-of-the-table fixture.

It was a contest which Bulldogs coach Dean Oxley thinks demonstrated the determination, commitment and belief his players have this season.

“Nothing is won today, but a bit of belief is what we’ve gained from that,” he said.

“That was great, it was just about having belief in what we’ve been doing under pressure. I knew we had to stand up today, I knew we were going to be tested. But we stuck to our system and that was really important against a high-class team.”

Josh Weekes opened the scoring in the third minute when he booted a penalty goal, but in a sign of what was to come, Emus soon replied via hooker Tom Goolagong.

There were six lead changes as the half unfolded, with more than a point a minute.

The most telling period of the half came in the final nine minutes. Firstly Emus’ flyhalf Kyran Bubb was yellow carded, then Harry Webber crossed to give Bulldogs a 22-21 lead.

Webber then came up with a try-saving cover tackle five meters out from his line - putting Tom Green into touch - before shrugging off a defender down the other end of the field to score another for Bulldogs.

That came 49 seconds out from the break and as Weekes converted, it handed Bulldogs a 29-21 advantage.

Nine minutes after play resumed – and after Emus had screwed Bulldogs’ scrum – Levi Russell crossed to hand the visitors back the lead.

But once more the hosts responded with 100-gamer Peter Fitzsimmons helping Ben Sheppeard to his second before Weekes nailed a penalty goal from halfway to make it 39-28.

When Webber was yellow carded with just over 11 minutes left, it gave Emus hope. Their prospects further improved when prop Matt Findlay bullied his way over soon after.

But that was where Emus’ comeback ended – Bulldogs absorbing the late pressure the visitors applied.

Though disappointed not to have repeated their success against Bulldogs in round two, Ringland gave credit to his rivals.

“We had our chance to win it there, we just dropped the ball with the line open. Well done to Bathurst, they deserved to win,” Emus coach Paul Ringland said.

“It’s definitely the most intense game we’ve played this season. Bathurst really took it to us over there [in Orange] and dropped away late, but obviously they hung on here today.

“We hung in there, but we weren’t happy with our first half, we conceded way too many points and were always chasing the game from there.

“It does take the monkey off our back, we haven’t lost a game other than the [2017] grand final in a long time, so it’s not the worst thing in the world for us. We’ll just go back now and get back to work.”