St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor has pleaded with fans calling for mass sackings to understand that everyone at the NRL club is working around the clock to please them.

Playing just metres away from banners that read: “Save our Saints”, the Dragons clawed back an early 18-point deficit against Canberra at GIO Stadium on Saturday to record their first win of the season.

During the dramatic come-from-behind 22-20 victory, Dragons fans who spent the first half booing their own players all of a sudden had something to cheer about.

The win follows two poor losses for the club, which triggered mass social media calls for CEO Peter Doust to be sacked under the Twitter campaign #SaveOurSaints.

However, coach Paul McGregor called for fans to have patience after the win in Canberra on Saturday.

“You can understand the fans’ disappointment,” McGregor said.

“They want the side to win. But they shouldn’t think for one minute of every day that we are not trying to please them. We are working around the clock to please them.

“We want to do that but it takes time. I hope they understand that and I hope they can be patient.”

Dragons captain Jason Nightingale admitted his side’s first two losses of the year were “pretty dismal”.

“But we were always confident we could put a smile on fans’ faces,” he said.

“We’re going to do everything we can to improve and ensure we don’t put ourselves in situations like we did in the first 15 minutes of today’s game.