Maguire hopes 'ugly' wins reap dividend against Roosters

The term "winning ugly" is sitting well with the Wests Tigers and coach Michael Maguire is hoping their past two wins spark the side's belief ahead of next week's showdown against the Sydney Roosters.

Maguire's men looked down and out when Rabbitohs halfback Adam Reynolds slotted a field goal with six minutes remaining but a 77th-minute piece of brilliance from Michael Chee-Kam delivered the club their first win at Bankwest Stadium on Thursday night.

It wasn't the first time this year Chee-Kam has come up with a match-winning moment after scoring in round five against the Broncos in golden point.

"I think the way they fought is what I'll take away from tonight," Maguire said post-game.

"We're in a position with where we are on the ladder that if we want to do something in this competition we have to keep coming up with wins like that.

"I really hope the boys take belief out of what we're doing at the moment. We're really finding ugly ways to win.

"There's many teams doing that at the moment, that's what the competition is all about, finding ways to win.

"We play a big team next week that's been performing."

The joint venture at one point were tackled 23 times in the Rabbitohs 20-metre zone but couldn't capitalise on field position until Chee-Kam's long-range effort before fulltime.

"We made it hard for ourselves the way we let the ball run dead a couple of times and they had seven-tackle sets a couple of times," Maguire said.

"Just our finishes to our sets weren't there tonight and that's something we'll have to improve moving forward for sure.

"We had dropped balls inside our 20 metres but they kept defending, that was the most pleasing part. One thing I was proud of was the boys fought for each other."

Maguire said Chee-Kam has even surprised himself at what he's capable of producing on the paddock.

"The boys said to him prior to the game that you're going to have to come up with something special," Maguire said.

"He's got a little bit of X-Factor around him and it's great to have him amongst the boys. He's quick and fast, under fatigue players like Chee can come up with something like that.

"It was an ugly game of football at times, it went backwards and forwards and no one was really taking control. He was able to come up with a big play."

The club had a few concerns to come out of the win with Robbie Farah (shoulder), Chris Lawrence (elbow) and Moses Mbye (head knock) requiring attention during the game.

Samoan forward Josh Aloiai was a late withdrawal with illness.