Brian Smith admits his Sydney Roosters are "vulnerable" after they slipped to their second successive NRL defeat to lowly Cronulla 18-12 on Friday at Toyota Stadium.

The third-placed Roosters, who lost to ladder-leading St George Illawarra last Sunday, are in danger of slipping out of the top four after going down to the Sharks, and Smith refused to offer any excuses for the loss.

"We are vulnerable right now and we have a long turnaround with a game against Gold Coast on Monday and we need every single day of it that is for sure," Smith said.

"We didn't do a lot of things the way we wanted to tonight and need to improve - we were too rushed and needed to be calm and composed."

"We looked like we were in a hurry to get it done as quick as we could instead of showing the respect we needed to to get the job done. It is not a smart way to go about things against a side like the Sharks."

Despite dominating the first half, the Roosters scored only two tries to lead 12-6 at the break, but their high-octane attacking game stuttered in the second period as the Sharks hit back to record a shock win.

Smith denied his side went into the game under-prepared, but said his players - who also lost 42-18 when the sides last met in round 13 - did not approach the game correctly.

"We got smacked by this team two or three months ago so we were not taking them lightly, if anything we were trying too hard to beat them," he said.

"Instead of being methodical we were trying to score 40 points which was crazy against a side who scrap so hard, they set the rules and we didn't play by them.

"Maybe experience is something we lacked tonight."

Halfback Mitchell Pearce took responsibility for the loss, but said his side were not pressing the panic button just yet.

"We are still up there in the finals spots. Obviously we wanted to desperately win the game but now it is about refocusing against the Titans next Monday and getting back on track," Pearce said.

"We did lack composure tonight and I take responsibility for that as I didn't do things as well as I could have.

"But you often you learn more from defeat than you do from a win and I think this is one of those occasions where you realise that to win games in the NRL you need to play smart football and we didn't do that."

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