Coach Tim Sheens hopes an end to their losing streak and the return of key players will spark the West Tigers out of their mid-season slump and into a surge to the NRL finals.

The Tigers snapped a three-match losing run with a convincing 38-18 win against North Queensland in Townsville on Saturday night to put themselves back into the top eight with seven matches remaining.

Sheens said his side had been suffering from a slump with injuries, transfer speculation and back luck on the football field adding to the Tigers' woes.

"There's a whole myriad of things, injury, obviously some issues within the team with people coming and going and also how we played the football, there's a whole host of things and it's just a mid-season issue," said Sheens.

"I mean we've won a game, we've lost our last three, and if you want to build some momentum and confidence it'll come slow.

"But if we play like we did and improve a touch we can win some football games and then you'll find that your confidence is back and you can play a little bit like Wests Tigers know they can."

The Tigers have welcomed back Chris Lawrence and Benji Marshall from injury in recent weeks and the four-time premiership winning coach expects veterans Matt Utai (arm), Lote Tuqiri (ankle) and Todd Payten (knee) to be available to face the Sydney Roosters on Saturday.

But Sheens warned that it would take time for those players to regain match fitness.

"You can't just expect them to jump in and be at their best so we've got to be careful there too with so many coming back," he said.

"We'll start to look a little like our old selves and as we build some confidence from tonight hopefully next week build it again.

"That's going to be our aim."

Captain Robbie Farah said the win against the Cowboys counted for little if they couldn't consolidate the win next Saturday.

"Tonight means nothing if we cant back it up at home against the Roosters. So well keep working hard and hope it goes well," he said.

The win put the Tigers into seventh spot but Farah said they were keen to move a few more rungs up the ladder.

"We know where we are, and we know we want to be higher. As long as we keep winning footy games that's all we can worry about."

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