PARRAMATTA'S reversal of form and fortune yesterday has been attributed to a long look in the mirror during the week by the players.

With the side's season slipping away following four defeats in just five matches - including an appalling 32-12 defeat by Newcastle in their previous encounter - the Eels bounced back with a 28-24 victory over the highly fancied Roosters, which skipper Nathan Cayless put down to the revealing truth sessions on Thursday and Saturday.

"We were all pretty honest with ourselves as players,] pretty much conceding that we've been letting each other down over the last few weeks, and we were able to come out … regardless of whether we won or lost, I'm very proud of the way the boys played, and stuck together as a team," Cayless said. "It was a much better effort, much better attitude to the game and a better attitude to working hard for each other. We know we haven't been putting in to the level that we should be as first-grade footballers.

"We just had a few things that we needed to talk about as a team, and we did that. You can have all the tactics that you want but if you don't have an attitude to go out and you want to beat the opposition and you want to run hard and tackle hard, it doesn't really matter much."

Second-rower Nathan Hindmarsh, who provided the inspiration after the normal perspiration when his hit on Roosters forward Anthony Tupou in the 77th minute clinched the game, felt the underperforming Eels were not playing as a team. His message was clear: the result at EnergyAustralia Stadium highlighted alarming deficiencies.

"We were fairly embarrassed about the Knights game," Hindmarsh said. "We knew we were a much better side than what we showed. We worked out the biggest problem for us is our forwards play as forwards and our backs play as backs. We haven't been playing as a team.

"We do everything at training really well but in the pressure of the game, things seem to go a bit AWOL. We'd panic, individuals would try and solve it by themselves. We had a more cruisy, upbeat attitude. We weren't panicking when they scored and we weren't panicking when we knocked on."

The result, which came just days after coach Michael Hagan was hospitalised with vertigo, has kept the Eels in the hunt for a finals spot, which is not as unlikely as would have seemed. The club faces Wests Tigers (home), the Bulldogs (away), St George Illawarra (away) and the Warriors (home) in the final four rounds.

"I'm not going to say it's easy, but it's better than playing Manly or the Storm or the Roosters again," Hindmarsh said. "We just need to come out again with the same attitude."

But the Eels are wary of talking up their finals prospects, largely because their performances this season have been so horribly inconsistent.

"We don't care about our run home or how many points we need," halfback Brett Finch said. "That's why we played so well [yesterday]. We realised the effort and attitude we needed to this performance, not four or five weeks' time."

Assistant coach David Fairleigh, who took the coaching reins even though Hagan was at the ground and in the dressing rooms afterwards, called Hindmarsh's contribution "as good as it's ever been", and questioned how the workaholic forward could have been snubbed by Australian selectors for a 46-man preliminary World Cup squad just over a week ago.

"That [play] was huge," Fairleigh said. "They'd made a break up the middle and he's made that one [tackle]. He's turned up again on the line. He's phenomenal. He's been tremendous all year for us, and what he did in the last five minutes is just indicative of his whole season, the way that he just keeps turning up and tries his heart out every week."

The Eels did suffer a handful of injuries yesterday, with Daniel Wagon (ribs) seemingly the worst. Matt Keating suffered a corked thigh while Kris Keating damaged his sternum. However, the Eels do not play again until Monday night.