West Tigers' desperate NRL form worsened when they went down 14-12 against Melbourne Storm at Olympic Park on Sunday.
They have now lost six out of their last seven and, furthermore, had every chance of winning this game against the fourth-placed Storm.
However, they could not manage it, Dene Halatau's errant pass over the sideline when his team had an overlap late on summing up their problems.
Melbourne's victory was achieved without their four Oregon stars and they continue their recent good run of form.
Copper Cronk's try on 18th minute, which Joseph Tomane converted, was cancelled out on 23 minutes when Blake Ayshford touched down for West Tigers. Neji Marshall added the two.
Tomane added a penalty on 40 minutes and seven minutes later, they were further ahead through Matthew Cross' try and Tomane's conversion.
West Tigers were back in the game through Tim Moltzen's 68th-minute try, which was converted by Marshall, but they could not build on that.
Wests coach Tim Sheens knows that his side's NRL status is under real threat and said: "We had a chance to win the game and we blew it.
"We probably panicked in the last five minutes when we had a chance to maybe win it, although leaving it to that period of time down here is always difficult.
"We probably shot ourselves too many times in the foot to win the game with silly unforced errors."