The official NRL trial fixture attracted more than 8000 fans to Apex Oval and most of them left happy after the Bulldogs managed a four tries to two victory in a physical but at times scrappy contest.

Both sides blew chances close to the line but in the end it was the Bulldogs who had the extra polish when needed to claim the win.

Things looked shaky for the Raiders early when Bulldogs prop Michael Hodgson burst through a gaping hole in the ‘Green Machine’ defence to score the opening try in just the fourth minute.

Each side had chances following that point to score however it took a piece of Josh Morris brilliance in the 33rd minute to extend the Bulldogs lead.

A Brett Kimmorley bomb was deflected by Bulldogs winger Heka Nanai into the path of Morris, who snatched the ball out of the air and wrapped around to score out wide.

Michael Ennis’ conversion made the score 12-0 at the break.

Ennis, who was dangerous out of dummy half all evening, led the Bulldogs out after the half-time break as Dubbo’s favourite son Andrew Ryan took a well-deserved break.

Within 11 minutes of the resumption tries to Nanai and then Ennis, courtesy of a cheeky chip-and-chase from dummy half, extended the Bulldogs lead to 22-0 and things looked forlorn for the Raiders.

However they hit back late through tries to Trevor Thurling and Marc Herbert and appeared to be finishing the stronger, although by that stage the Bulldogs had taken several key players from the field.

After the match Raiders coach David Furner was left lamenting several missed opportunities close to the Bulldogs line.

“We should have done a lot more given the opportunities we had,” Furner said.

“But we have a fortnight to work on that and we showed some good signs out there late in the match.

“It was an improvement from last week against Brisbane and we will keep working to improve before round one.”

In the winner’s dressing room, Bulldogs coach Kevin Moore said he was happy with where his team is physically ahead of a round one clash with Newcastle on March 13.

“I thought it was pretty impressive tonight,” Moore said.

“We led 22-0 with about 15 minutes to go and then we took ‘Noddy’ (Brett Kimmorley) and Mick Ennis off so things got a bit scrappy.

“I think we will just spend the next two weeks fine-tuning a few things.

“Physically we are fine but we will just sit down and go over our trials and pinpoint some areas to improve on before round one.”