North Queensland co-captain Johnathan Thurston continued his run of form Saturday night as the Cowboys beat a fast-finishing Manly 22-20 in the NRL game in Townsville.

Thurston, who has been playing some of the best football of his decorated career, scored a try and kicked three conversions.

The Test and Origin halfback is leading the NRL for line break assists and added another to his season tally when he put Matt Bowen through for the Cowboys' only try of the second half.

The home side looked to be coasting to an easy win after taking a 16-4 half-time lead, but three Manly tries in the final 15 minutes gave the Cowboys a scare.

The fightback started in the 65th minute when Will Hopoate jumped onto a Daly Cherry-Evans chip.

They further cut the lead in the 71st minute when Michael Oldfield crossed in the corner after receiving a Jamie Lyon pass.

Oldfield thought he'd scored again three minutes later when he collected a Lyon flick and ran 60 metres to cross, but the video referee decided Lyon knocked on.

Anthony Watmough gave the Cowboys a further fright in the 79th minute when he beat three defenders to score.

Cowboys five-eighth Ray Thompson may have a case to answer with the match review committee after a high lift on Jason King on 60 minutes.

Manly made the most of their early attacking pressure to score first, Michael Robertson latching onto a Hopoate offload to cross in the left corner in the 12th minute.

But the Cowboys hit back to score three tries in just 10 minutes to take a comfortable half-time lead.

Bowen ran into a large gap to score on 21 minutes when he collected a Glenn Hall offload.

Thurston converted then added a try of his own on 25 minutes when he pounced on a ball dropped by Hopoate attempting a catch in-goal.

Aaron Payne then shimmied and sent the Manly defence the wrong way from dummy half on 29 minutes.

The disallowed try was a point of disagreement between the coaches, Des Hasler saying he felt benefit of the doubt should have led to video umpire Paul Simpkins awarding the try.

"I thought it was a weak decision," the Manly coach said.

"It looked as if he knocked the ball back but it was the angle of the body that made it look as if it was a knock on."

Lyon, whose knock-on was the centre of the disagreement, was adamant the ball "went back".

But Cowboys coach Neil Henry said he thought it was a knock-on from the start.

"The hands were facing towards the try-line and I reckon it came forward off the hands," he said.

Henry also felt the referee made the right decision to just award a penalty for a high throw by Thompson.

"It's a dangerous tackle in so far as he was upended, he got into a dangerous position, so I hope that a penalty is sufficient."

Hasler said the loss may be something they look back on later in the season.

"We were just guilty of too many unforced errors and our execution wasn't polished enough."

Hasler said a cork had kept fullback Kieran Foran out of much of the second half.

The Cowboys will be awaiting scans on Payne who missed the second half through a strained or torn elbow.

"He was in a bit of discomfort at halftime so we thought it best to be cautious there," Henry said.

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