Roosters 24 Eels 28

AT THE end of 2007 they were voted team most likely, but all year Parramatta have played like a mob of burger flippers waiting for their shift to end.

Yesterday, with a resilient 28-24 victory over the Sydney Roosters the Eels showed that, while they're still not ready to end the global credit crunch or storm the halls of academia, they haven't clocked off on the season.

Parramatta had ample chances to concede victory to the Roosters, who were playing for a share of the competition lead but instead looked as if they wanted to only play as well as they needed to to win. Judging by the Eels' recent outings, that shouldn't have been much. This time, however, when the Eels were tested they answered, instead of throwing up another bout of questions like, why are they playing so poorly?

Ironically, the answer to that came in the form of the side itself questioning its own heart - looking into the room of mirrors and finding their attitude wanting.

"During the week we were all pretty honest with ourselves as players, pretty much conceding we've been letting ourselves down over the last few weeks," explained captain Nathan Cayless.

Nathan Hindmarsh was omnipresent, catching a bat-back from Joel Reddy to open the Eels' account, and riding Anthony Tupou into the ground on the final play of the day to close out the Roosters. Not bad for a player declared 10 days ago by Australian selectors as not worthy of a place in the nation's top 46.

One who is, Braith Anasta, had a strong game, setting up the first try with a deft pass and then an equally sharp kick for Amos Roberts to score. Winger Shaun Kenny-Dowall added a second to give the Roosters a 12-8 lead, the only time they had their noses in front all day.

Young Eels five-eighth Kris Keating went for the sky and Reddy, again, followed the ball, launching himself above the Roosters catcher Sam Perrett and two blockers, Sia Soliola and Kenny-Dowall, and coming down on the money side of the tryline with the ball and the points, giving Parramatta the 16-12 lead they took into the half-time break.

A lead is one thing but it proved slippery to hold on to for the Eels. Krisnan Inu kicked a penalty but, almost from the kick-off, Daniel Wagon lost the ball and Kenny-Dowall scored a second.

In a live action replay at the other end, Willie Mason was dispossessed returning the kick-off before Feleti Mateo showed skills beyond the ken of just about anyone else playing the game today, dragging two defenders for a few metres before shrugging off Mitchell Pearce to deliver an unsighted back-of-the-hand flick straight into Inu's hands for Joe Gulavao's try.

Back to a lead of six, but again it slipped through their fingers, this time when Perrett scored and Craig Fitzgibbon's conversion tied up the game 24-all with 20 minutes to play and Parramatta's season still on the line.

How badly did they want it? Pearce's kick brought the Roosters close to levelling but Inu's pick-up had the Eels running free, with the flying centre brought down in the most unlikely fashion - an ankle tap from Mason.

But the gallop seemed to do Inu plenty of good. Instead of opting for an early field goal with nine minutes left, Brett Finch, the Eels' best yesterday as he has been for most of the season, fired a cut-out pass to Inu who was lurking on the wing.

From there it was a matter of holding on - both to the lead and the desire to hold the Roosters out. For once, the Eels held tight.

The Roosters didn't. As much as the Eels were talking up their improved attitude, the Roosters have to worry about their own, with a topsy-turvy form book - including losses to sides sitting way below them on the table, such as Canberra and Parramatta - posing questions about their own game-heads.

"Whatever it is we were just poor today and they were a lot more energetic and desperate," observed Roosters coach Brad Fittler

"We didn't really challenge them too much, so that was really disappointing. We lost every 50/50 [call] so, added all together with our lacklustre energy, we deserved to be beaten by more, I reckon."