WHEN Ricky Stuart’s Raiders run out onto Carrington Park tomorrow it will be to do battle with a team sitting five spots below them on the NRL ladder, but the Canberra coach knows that is deceiving.

He knows that Penrith will be no easy beats tomorrow afternoon.

After the Panthers pushed the Raiders all the way in round one before going down by eight points, they have gone on to suffer four more defeats in games they looked a chance of winning.

Stuart believes had a little luck gone the way of the Panthers, they could be positioned higher on the ladder than his men.

“It’ll be a very tough game. Probably a genuine evaluation of the Panthers is that they have competed in every game this year and they have been very unlucky and they are a probably team which could be in the top three or four of the competition this season,” he said.

“They’ve been a bit unlucky and haven’t won a few they should’ve.”

Given the tight contest Stuart is anticipating this afternoon, he has worked hard to keep his players focused after last Saturday’s 60-6 trouncing of Wests Tigers.

He is especially wary of the threat the returning Panther James Segeyaro will pose from hooker.

“He’s a wonderful player, he’s a guy who is just a live wire and he creates so much attack for them, for Penrith. He’s a player we really have to keep an eye on because he is very creative,” Stuart said.

“We always have a tough game against Penrith. They’re a team that we always sort of get into a scrap with – it’s always tough, it’s always physical.

“They have got a good team and we’ve got a good team, it’ll be a good game of footy. It’ll be good for the country area, it’s good they are taking it out to Bathurst.

“We are prepared for a game we consistently have with Penrith, it usually goes down to the last 10 minutes.”

Stuart has named a unchanged line-up from the one which beat the Tigers, with five-eighth Blake Austin still not ready to make his return from injury.

Kick off is at 3pm.