Wests Tigers coach Jason Taylor is happy his team responded to a poor loss to Penrith last week with a positive effort against Parramatta despite going down 28-16 on Monday night.
Cruelled by the absence of key men Robbie Farah and Aaron Woods (Origin) and Luke Brooks (shoulder) as well as a 12-4 penalty count against them there were some strong individual performances from the new last-placed team.
"[It was] disappointing on the scoreboard but we've been talking all year about a performance," Taylor said.
"Right where we are right now, it's about turning this club around and we've been looking for performances and that was a really strong one tonight under really tough conditions in the way that the opposition kept getting penalties and we got hardly any and it was tough.
"There was some really great fight in us, it was a great response to our poor performance last week, the opposition missed more tackles than we did (35 compared to 18) even though they had more ball than us. There was a lot to like in that performance."
With his team's finals hopes now entering mathematical territory Taylor said he is just looking for more strong performances to round out the season rather than focusing on the competition ladder.
"We want strong performances, that's what we got tonight," he said.
"I know you guys [in the media] and everybody out there's focused on the competition table and the scoreboard at the end of the game, [but] we're a team, we're all working really hard to turn this club around.
"We've been a long way off for a lot of years and right now on the table we're still a long way off but the training that's being done each week at our club, the attitude of the players each week at our club and the performance tonight is all positive.
"I said it during the week, right now I'm really excited about the future for the cub, the support I've got and the support the coaching staff have got and then the support that the players have got on the back of that is enormous and I can't ask for any more.
"We've got some young talented players, we want to work hard to add to that roster over the next few years and the club's heading in the right direction."
Taylor also praised the efforts of young halfback Josh Drinkwater, called up to play his fifth NRL game and first for the club following Brooks's withdrawal with a shoulder injury.
"I thought it was strong, I thought he did really well, some really nice kicking, a couple of nice touches, it was good for Josh," Taylor said after the 23-year-old laid on his side's opening try with a long cut-out ball in a promising all-round performance.
"He's done really well this season to bide his time and work hard and be ready for tonight, he was really ready for tonight.
"Our NSW Cup team has had an up-and-down season and when they've been down he's stayed positive because that's his role in our club.
"We brought him here to be a back-up for us if we lost one of our halves and he's known that's the position that he's in and sometimes you can go a season and that doesn't come but he's stayed positive and it was great for him to get a game, and I wouldn't hesitate if the opportunity comes along again where we need to use him."
