The Dyldam Parramatta Eels suffered a 46-4 defeat to the hands of the North Queensland Cowboys at 1300Smiles Stadium and Head Coach Brad Arthur said his side were disappointed with the Round 20 result.
"We are disapponited with the end result. I think the 44 points put on us is disappointing but I think it is also a bit unfair too. I dont think we were that bad but they were that good," Arthur said at the conclusion of the match.
"They had 12 sets more than us and fifteen repeat sets to our six," he added.
"If you only have 35% posession, it is hard to keep defending and defending and defending against such a class outfit."
The Eels entered the half time sheds trailing by six points, however a mountain of possession to the Cowboys saw the home side unleash 36 unanswered points in the second stanza.
"We are not happy. They tried hard and we are not happy with the end result and we made it harder on ourselves than we needed it to be," Arthur said.
"In the first half we made 50 more tackles at one stage and at half time we only had 35% of the ball and we needed to improve that in the second half, and we didn't."
Eels skipper Tim Mannah agreed with Arthur's assessment of the game saying that the weight of the possession to the Cowboys had put the Blue and Gold on the back foot.
"Against a team like the Cowboys, you can't afford to give them so much possession and we made it hard on ourselves again," Mannah said.
"We struggled to stop their momentum, they seemed to roll down the field a bit easy and we were on the back foot a bit too much and they just took advantage of that."
