PARRAMATTA playmaker Brett Finch says what the team produced to beat St George Illawarra yesterday "won't cut the mustard against the top teams in the comp".

But with that assessment came the footnote that he believed they had the improvement in them to level up with the leaders. When, we'll have to wait and see, but, as far as Finch and the rest of the Eels are concerned, at least they are finally on their way.

"We've got to continue to improve, but we're already doing that," Finch said.

"That was a better performance than last week [when Parramatta beat Penrith]. "We've got a lot more improvement in us and it's up to us to bring that out of ourselves.

"We played some pretty good footy at times earlier in the season and we played some pretty good footy today. We're slowly getting better and if we want to keep getting better it's all about believing.

"That win will be good for our confidence. It will help us gather momentum."

Finch nominated the Sydney Roosters as one of those top teams. Parramatta will play them at Parramatta Stadium on Friday night. Did he think the Eels could bridge that gap in five days?

"I think so," he said. "They will be missing a few of their big guns because of Origin, so it will be a good opportunity for us. And we're playing at our home ground.

"It'll be a big game and we'll look forward to it. We've got the bye the following round, so it would be great to pick up two points against the Roosters and then collect the two from the bye."

Parramatta were never headed in yesterday's game and twice got out to 12-point leads. It was 12-0 after 34 minutes and 18-6 after 53. But the Dragons kept trying and put themselves back in the contest when winger Jason Nightingale scored a try in the 60th minute and five-eighth Jamie Soward converted from out wide to cut the deficit to six.

It was not St George Illawarra's day for getting the luck or the close calls. Centre Matt Cooper scored after Eels winger Eric Grothe had dropped the ball in a tackle in the 32nd minute, but referee Sean Hampstead sent it on to video referee Steve Clark for a decision and Clark ruled no try, citing a strip.

Eels coach Michael Hagan said he thought the decision was correct. Dragons coach Nathan Brown was philosophical, saying that when your luck is in you get those decisions and when your luck is out you don't. But Cooper was adamant Clark had erred.

"No way, man," Cooper said, when asked if he stripped the ball. "I thought it was a fair tackle. I was pretty disappointed about it. We scored and it got disallowed and then the first set after that they scored. I didn't try to strip it. I was just trying to tackle him.

"At the time I thought 'try', straight away. He [Hampstead] was going to award it before they [Parramatta players] all blew up about it. That's what we [Dragons players] all thought."

St George Illawarra should have scored when Soward stepped into the clear in the 49th minute and support players arrived on both his inside and outside, but Eels winger Joel Reddy got between Soward and the inside support and when Soward was forced to go to the outside, Reddy nailed the receiver - lock Stuart Webb - with a tackle that took him into touch centimetres short of the line.

The Dragons would have had a conversion attempt to lock the game up at 12-12 had Webb scored, but it just wasn't their day for good things to happen. And just like with the Cooper no-try decision, Parramatta scored a try soon afterwards. This time it took three minutes, whereas earlier it took just the one.

But, there is the argument that you make your own luck and Brown wasn't happy with the way his players responded to the Cooper no-try - by conceding a try straight after.

Brown said St George played some good football, but it is not enough. They need wins.

Parramatta have got two of those in a row now, which caused Hagan to say, with mock excitement: "It's our first official roll of the year."

He could afford a grin. The Eels may not be all the way back yet, but at least they're heading in the right direction.