"Of our five prior losses, I believe that realistically we could have and should have won four of those games so, in terms of the overall season, while the win-loss ratio is not in our favour, the intent and effort and commitment through those first seven rounds has been at a standard we will continue to work with, but last night wasn't at that standard. On notice: Jason Taylor lines up with Wests Tigers players before the loss to the Canberra Raiders. Credit:Stefan Postles "[The players] are hurting and should be embarrassed about it. That level of performance, regardless of whether you get a win or loss, is unacceptable." After starting the season with wins over the Warriors and Manly, the Tigers have lost to Gold Coast, Parramatta, Cronulla, Newcastle, Melbourne and Canberra but, before Saturday night, their biggest losing margin had been 12 points when beaten 30-18 by the Titans and last weekend they were defeated in extra time by the Storm. Pascoe said there had been no indication such a heavy defeat was coming and Taylor and his players would be doing some soul searching to determine what had gone wrong.

From the opening try by Canberra back-rower Elliott Whitehead in the third minute, the Tigers were never in the game and the statistics from the match told the story as six Raiders forwards ran more than 100 metres with the ball, whereas prop Ava Seumanufagai was the only member of the Tigers pack to do so. Clearly they are missing injured captain Aaron Woods up front but NSW hooker Robbie Farah is yet to experience a win in six matches with the Tigers this season and rookie halves Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks were ineffective behind a beaten forward pack. "We are not looking for excuses," Pascoe said. "They are doing some internal analysis and will continue to do so during the week but we were pretty confident going into the game that everyone's head was switched on and, if you have 100 per cent effort and commitment, you are not going to complain. "We're really proud of what we have been able to achieve on and off the field over the past six months and how we have been able to establish and buy into all these standards, so to then go out last night and not achieve any of those standards was nothing other than disappointing and unacceptable." While most of the blame for the performance has been directed at the players, Taylor is the man in the hot seat and another heavy defeat against Souths on Thursday night will see pressure on his job sky rocket.

With the Tigers having 18 days before their next match against Canterbury on May 15, that would be the obvious time to make decisions on retaining Taylor, Farah's future beyond this season and if Moses and Brooks are to be the club's long-term halves combination. Moses and Brooks have until June to take up option clauses in their contracts for a 12-month extension and it is expected they would want to know who the coach would be next year before making a decision. Fox Sports commentator Braith Anasta, a former Tigers player, said they "look like a team that doesn't have belief in their coach". But former Australia captain Brad Fittler believed the players needed to be accountable.

"I think there were four or five tries scored from within five or six metres [of the try line]," Fittler told The Sunday Footy Show. "It doesn't show much commitment. It is not Jason's fault.They were not having a go there. It was just awful." Todd Payten, Ivan Cleary and Geoff Toovey had been mentioned as possible replacements for Taylor but Pascoe insisted the club had not considered appointing a new coach. "[Taylor] is contracted until 2017 and it is not one individual who creates yesterday's results, it is a collective force and everyone needs to stick together and work together to improve that and rectify that," Pascoe said. "We will continue as an organisation to add support and capability to the football department." The Tigers welcome back centre Tim Simona from suspension for the match against Souths at ANZ Stadium.