A 22-point virtuoso performance from skipper Jamie Lyon helped Manly recover from a horrid start to beat Wests Tigers 38-20 in a fiery NRL encounter at Bluetongue Stadium on Sunday.

The Sea Eagles scored six tries to four to move up to fourth, one spot behind the Tigers, in a front of a ground record-equalling capacity crowd of 20,059.

Centre Lyon scored two tries and kicked seven from seven to send the Tigers tumbling to their first defeat in four games.

The Sea Eagles bounced back from an 8-0 deficit and the first half sin-binning of centre Steve Matai.

The Tigers dominated early possession and territory statistics, with a try to lock Chris Heighington and two goals to five-eighth Benji Marshall rewarding them for their early pressure.

Manly piled on 18 points in 12 first-half minutes to take control through converted tries to second rower Shane Rodney, five-eighth Kieran Foran and Lyon.

A feisty affair which had produced a few earlier shoving matches threatened to boil over when Matai was binned five minutes before halftime.

The New Zealand international was put on report for a challenge on Tigers skipper and hooker Robbie Farah near the Wests line.

Matai gave Farah a slap on the back while he was getting treatment, which Heighington took exception to and a brief scuffle between the two resulted in Matai getting binned.

The Tigers got to within six points after halfback Robert Lui juggled and dummied his way over and Marshall converted.

Manly enjoyed a 24-12 halftime lead after winger Michael Robertson threw a miracle pass to keep the ball in play and four passes later lock Glenn Stewart crossed.

Centre Blake Ayshford dummied his way over off a Marshall cut-out pass to get the Tigers within eight.

However Lyon pushed Manly's lead out to 14 after he converted his own spectacular try which came from a great leap following a cross field bomb by Foran.

Tigers winger Lote Tuqiri, who was hurt trying to defuse a bomb, smashed his way over for his 12th try of the season to reduce the deficit to ten with 20 minutes remaining.

The Sea Eagles secured the points when Trent Hodkinson and forward Brent Kite set up fullback Ben Farrar for a 67th minute try.

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