An hour after the siren had sounded, Parramatta winger Luke Burt was still too distraught to talk.

His Eels had just gone down 20-18 in a thriller to Wests Tigers at Parramatta Stadium, and Burt was blaming himself.

With just seconds left on the clock and Parramatta charging home with their finals hopes on the line, Burt - the NRL's most accurate kicker with an 85 per cent strike rate - lined up a penalty goal attempt from 25 metres out and just off centre that would have forced extra time.

He missed.

"He had a chance to level the scores for us but unfortunately missed," said Eels co-captain Nathan Hindmarsh, obviously feeling for his likeable teammate.

"The worst thing is Burty would kick them blindfolded any other day."

This day however he didn't, and now the Eels have been left to contemplate what might have been.

"He's taken it pretty hard. It can be a cruel game," Eels coach Daniel Anderson said.

"It's going to be bitter for him, that memory.

"Maybe we should have taken opportunities before that. It's difficult to put the blame at one person's feet for a game like that."

That the Eels were even in a position to contemplate extra time is extraordinary given the fact they showed little life in falling behind 20-6 with little more than ten minutes remaining.

But in an effort which summed up their season, the Eels left their run far too late.

In reality, the Tigers could had have this one wrapped up at halftime given their dominance over the opening 40 minutes, the 10-6 lead at the break scarcely indicative of their performance.

Twice the visitors were denied by the video referee - once when Robbie Farah fluffed a simple put down from a gorgeous Benji Marshall grubber - while Chris Lawrence twice found the sideline with a pass instead of unmarked winger Lote Tuqiri five metres out.

Lawrence and Tuqiri eventually combined to send the latter over, and when Beau Ryan scored his first of the afternoon, it appeared the scoreboard was finally catching up to the Tigers' level of play.

It almost seemed unjust when Joel Reddy and Krisnan Inu swivelled out of tackles as the Kiwi winger cut the deficit to four at halftime, but Ryan's second and another to Andrew Fifita after a debatable tackle restart had the Tigers almost home.

But as they have made a habit of doing over the past two seasons, the Eels left it late to find something, Justin Horo and Anthony Mitchell scoring within three minutes of each other.

Twice the Eels went close without luck until the referee spotted a strip by an unidentified Tigers player on Feleti Mateo to hand Burt a lifeline he would ultimately waste.

"I think there was about five hands on the ball - I had no idea,"Mateo said when asked who had committed the strip.

"It just came out and I was scared they were going to say I knocked it on."

Tigers coach Tim Sheens took the win with relief, but admitted the better side had emerged victorious.

"We got a little bit of luck with him missing the goal but I thought overall we were the better side," Sheens said.

"I was pleased to see we got away with what is a great win for the club."

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