Though Canberra have lost five straight games to be languishing at the bottom of the ladder, and the Knights are eighth after winning three from six, history shows the Raiders should feel confident about ending their slump against the Knights at Canberra Stadium on Sunday.

The ground at the Australian Institute of Sport complex in Bruce has become a graveyard for visiting Newcastle teams. Including a 30-12 loss at Seiffert Oval in Queanbeyan in 1988, the Knights have won just two of 18 away games against Canberra in 23 years.

The second and most recent of those two wins was on March 19, 2006, when they derailed the Green Machine 70-32 in the highest-scoring game in premiership history.

Asked whether the Knights had developed a psychological aversion to trips to Canberra, or if the results were purely coincidental, coach Rick Stone said: ‘‘I’m not going to talk about that, mate. All I can do is have a look at what the team has done this year and I’d like to think there’s a bit more resolve there, and that’s all I’m going to say on that.’’

Captain Kurt Gidley and bench prop Dan Tolar are the only survivors of the previous Newcastle team to win in the national capital on that sunny Sunday afternoon five years ago.

Like his coach, Gidley side-stepped questions about the hoodoo, saying: ‘‘I won’t be commenting on that this year.’’

Gidley’s older brother Matt was also involved in the 2006 rout but the former NSW and Australian centre suffered through more losses in Canberra than he cared to remember.

‘‘Every time I turned up there when I was playing, we were mindful that our record there was poor but we were always confident going into those games,’’ said Matt Gidley, who works with the Knights as a skills coach and as business development manager.

‘‘The last time we won there was that huge victory, and I remember walking off thinking that was probably the worst performance by a team that I’d ever played against.

‘‘Typically, they’re so tough to beat down there, so I was hoping that broke the shackles for us for years to come, but maybe we just got all our points in one day to cover the next few years.’’

Matt Gidley said playing the Raiders in early autumn was a more attractive prospect than in the middle of winter, as was the case on July 18 last year when Canberra led 52-0 after as many minutes and coasted to a 52-18 victory.

‘‘We’re always aware of it, because it gets brought up every year that we’ve got a poor record down there, but that means every player is really determined to put an end to that,’’ he said yesterday.

‘‘They get even further up for this game just so they can be part of the team that finally broke the shackles and put the hoodoo to bed down there.’’

Newcastle’s first win in Canberra was in 2001, when Brett Finch kicked a 20-metre restart out on the full chasing a scrum win and possible last-minute field goal to break a 20-all deadlock. But his indiscretion gifted Andrew Johns a winning penalty goal from in front after the siren.

‘‘It’s been a crazy sort of away ground for us, even when we’ve won, but it’s just a coincidence because we’ve always turned up down there determined to put this hoodoo to bed,’’ Matt Gidley said.

‘‘They just play well down there. I was watching their game against the Cowboys last week and was sort of hoping they won that just to take a bit of wind out of their sails, because there’s no doubt they’re going to come out firing this weekend to try to turn their season around.

‘‘It’s a huge challenge for our boys, despite what’s happened down there in the past 20 years. No doubt they’ll all pull together this week but I’ve seen enough in our boys that there’s a real grittiness in their game.

‘‘Against Manly a few weeks ago, it was one of those games that could have blown out to 40 points because there were injuries and they weren’t playing well, but they had that grit in their game that kept them within striking distance right to the end.

‘‘It was the same in Brisbane last week, and that’s a really good trait I’ve seen evolve in this team, and that just comes with maturity – and they’re going to need that this weekend.’’

In preparation for their opening eight-game stretch which included six away matches and long-haul trips to Canberra, Brisbane, Townsville and Melbourne, Stone and his players used pre-season trials in New Zealand, Port Macquarie and Muswellbrook to develop a more rigid routine and establish a more positive attitude to playing on the road.

‘‘We have had a bit of practice at it this year and we’ve shown the right sort of stuff in most of those cases,’’ Stone said.

‘‘I was a bit disappointed with the way we played at Manly, although the resolve was still there, and we saw that again in Brisbane, and I’m going to expect absolutely nothing less on Sunday.’’

Stone said the Raiders were a good team playing without confidence.

‘‘I think there’s enough talent there, and we all know that. We saw what they could do at the end of last year,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s always a tough game for us, and I’ve got plenty of respect for their pack and their artillery in the backs. We’re preparing like we do for any away game in the comp, and I don’t look at the table and consider where they are.

‘‘I know they’re a dangerous footy team and they’re probably not far away from a win.’’

Stone just hopes that elusive victory does not come on Sunday.