After successive narrow losses to last year’s grand finalists, coach Jason Taylor says he likes what he sees in his new Wests Tigers outfit.

The Tigers pushed South Sydney last week and dropped the first golden point encounter of the season 25-24 to Canterbury on Friday.

The NRL joint venture should have gone on with it after leading 24-6 with just over a quarter of the match remaining, but Canterbury surged homed to make it 24-all.

But even so, Luke Brooks missed a relatively easy shot at field goal during the extra-time period that would have given the Tigers a sensational win.

Moses Mbye eventually slotting the matchwinner for the Dogs.

Either way, Taylor said the Tigers have shown in the past two weeks they catch match it with any other team in the competition.

“At the start of the year, I just wanted us to start being a team that was hard to beat and the Bulldogs had to play some great footy at the end to beat us,” Taylor said.

“We were much more impressive than last week against Souths and I think we have gone a long way to being that team already but there is a long, long way to go in our development as a team.

“I said to the guys after that it is important we don’t bash ourselves up too much after that.

“Because you guys (the media) will write that we had that game and should have won it and I think that is right but that isn’t accurate in relation to the players we had out tonight, the young players we had in our team

“The fact that we backed up from that game last week it is a really positive night for the club in my opinion.

Tigers prop Aaron Woods missed the match with a knee injury but is expected to be fit for round five, as are Bulldogs late withdrawals Brett Morris (calf) and Tim Lafai (quad)