Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens admits criticism of his side’s recent performances have been justified, but denies their NRL season is spiralling out of control.

The Tigers were billed as the side to beat in 2012, but have slumped to four successive defeats in their opening five games, and surrendered a 16-4 lead with seven minutes to go to lose 17-16 in golden point against South Sydney last Sunday.

Sheens’ men take on in-form Brisbane on Friday at Allianz Stadium with Keith Galloway and Robbie Farah back in the side following injury and suspension respectively.

However, Gareth Ellis is out for three months with a broken foot and Joel Reddy was withdrawn on Thursday with a hip injury.

Despite their lacklustre start to the year, Sheens dismissed claims his side’s season is in danger of slipping away from them.

“We’ve been through these periods before and there is no point in sooking about it. We just have to get on with it,” he said.

“In 2005, we won the grand final and we were running 14th midway through the year.

“It is always about the end of the season so judge us then.”

Sheens revealed his side were emotionally drained after last week’s defeat by Souths and that he has had to work hard to lift his players.

“It’s real important for us to get back on the horse and certainly ready to play and I think we’ve done that well this week,” he said.

“We’ve led all but one of our games at halftime this year and not played well in the second half.

“Leading by 12 with seven minutes to go and losing is not acceptable. The guys know that but there is nothing we can do about it now.”

Sheens also revealed referees’ boss Bill Harrigan has apologised to him for some wrong calls made by officials against his side in recent weeks and this was a bigger factor for their defeats than indiscipline from his players.

However, he did admit that missed tackles have cost them dearly, leading to their defence being labelled soft.

“I think our offence is giving our defence too much work to do,” he said.

“We are making 350 tackles a game which is more than you need to be doing. That’s been caused by our lack of possession and we have to work harder on that.

“When you don’t get a fair share of the ball, you work harder and some of our players have missed tackles and that has been expressed to them and worked upon in training.”