Penrith's turning point?

It might not go down as one of Penrith's greatest wins but Friday night's scratchy come-from-behind 24-16 win over North Queensland may be just what the Panthers need to get their stuttering season back on the path to challenge for the premiership.

That is the message coming out of the Panthers camp after they scored two tries in the last nine minutes to turn a 16-10 deficit into a crucial eight point win at CUA stadium.

Looking like top four certainties a few weeks ago, the Panthers had all of a sudden put their final hopes in jeopardy on the back of three straight losses against the Warriors, Eels and Storm.

They appeared headed for defeat against the Cowboys until the late tries to Kevin Kingston and Michael Gordon breathed new life into their season.

While the Panthers performance won't have any other of the finals bound teams shivering with fear, skipper Petero Civoniceva believes this could be a turning point for the club's year.

"In terms of confidence tonight's win is so important for us," he said.

"It wasn't the prettiest of wins but sometimes you've got to find away to win ugly."

"We had to be tough and we showed in patches there when we were camped down on our line that toughness that hasn’t been on display the last few weeks."

"We've still got a way to go but from that perspective we're pleased."

Panthers coach Matt Elliott cancelled a scheduled day off in the lead up to the match for an extra training session in a bid to snap his team out of their slump.

It didn't seem to work as the Cowboys had the better of the match for long periods but just couldn't land the killer blow in the second half.

"We probably looked a bit anxious this week...the last few weeks have been a bit of a dint to our confidence," Elliott admitted.

"We're just lacking a little bit of precision in our attack at the moment and fluency."

"We looked tired early and it's probably down to the amount of work we put into them this week...it wasn't hard work but it was long work and I accept some responsibility there."

"But it was a result that we needed now what we've got to do is start getting some performances."

Cowboys coach Neil Henry lamented a number of missed opportunities by his side but couldn't fault their effort.

"We had a really good kick-chase and got them in goal few times and we probably needed to score some points but they turned up to make some big tackles," he said.

"I'm happy with the boys' commitment it just came down to two long range tries."

"Our goal line defence was resilient but they've got a few dangerous runners and got away with tries."

"I've got 17 dejected men in there but I can't fault their commitment...we just let ourselves down in execution."