South Sydney co-captain Matt King claims his side will learn some valuable lessons from Monday night’s gut-wrenching 24-20 NRL defeat by the Sydney Roosters.

Souths were the better side for most of the game, but two tries in the last three minutes from Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Anthony Minichiello, who touched down with 20 seconds left on the clock, sealed an unlikely win for their bitter rivals at ANZ Stadium.

However, the former NSW winger believes there were more positives to come out of the games than negatives.

“It was a pretty tough pill to swallow to see the Roosters players celebrating in the manner that they did,” King said on Tuesday.

“But we were the better side for most of the game and we can take a lot from the manner in which we played for most of it.”

King denied Souths took their foot off the pedal thinking they had won the game and dispelled any notion his side underestimated the Roosters in the latter stages.

“We gave away a penalty for offside and that gave them an easy field position and Hargreaves scored,” he said.

“We were saying behind the line that we just had to hold on for one more set.

“But we gave the Roosters full respect and not at any point did we think we had the game won and you have to tip your hat to them.

“The one positive we have to take from this game is that we will learn from it and won’t let it happen like that again.

“It’s round one so it’s not panic stations yet, but if we don’t learn from the mistakes of last night then it will be a disaster.”