Brad Arthur has revealed he was still not jumping for joy at Parramatta's 43 points to 12 victory over the Newcastle Knights.
While admitting it was the best his side have played this year, Arthur was left "frustrated" at the number of points the Eels left on the park.
Clint Gutherson and Mitchell Moses had their way with the Knights for the most part, but the side still bombed a number of tries which could have sent the scorecard spiralling even further out of control.
"I thought we played the power game the best we have all year," Arthur said during his post-game press conference.
"I'm a bit frustrated. We probably left a bit out there, but I challenged the forward about running hard off the back fence, and they did that. They paved the way for our speed and our spine, who put some polish on it, but it's probably the best we have looked like in terms of what we want to look like with the footy."
Arthur said that while he wanted to enjoy the performance for what it was, the second-half completion rate, as the game fizzled out, had left him with things to work on in the coming weeks following a start to the season where Parramatta only won three out of their first eight games - a record that has now improved to four and five and has the club sitting (tentatively) two points outside of the eight with a bye in hand.
"We want to enjoy it. It was better. Closer to what we want to look like, but still, we left quite a bit out there. I think at one stage we were only completing 50 per cent in the second half, so we lacked a little bit of control at times, but it was the closest we have been to what we want to look like."
The coach said it was a testament to his playing group that panic hadn't set in during a difficult opening to the season.
"I knew we were close [during the opening weeks], but not close enough. All those games we lost early, we scored the same amount of tries or the bounce of a ball here or there. I knew we weren't far off, and didn't want to panic," Arthur added.
"I knew we hadn't lost the ability to play to our talent, we just hadn't found our groove.
"I still don't think we have, but that's the pleasing thing for us. We didn't change anything at training, we didn't reinvent the wheel. We just had to make sure we knew what worked for us, we had a good discussion this week about what we look like, and the boys owned it tonight."
The Eels will face the Gold Coast Titans next Sunday evening during Magic Round.
