St George Illawarra have saved their biggest scalp of the NRL season for Paul McGregor’s farewell party, shocking Parramatta 14-12 at Bankwest Stadium.

In McGregor’s final game in charge, the Dragons were dogged and desperate in one of their best 80-minute performances of the year.

It was the kind of win that would have left McGregor wondering where it had been for the past 18 months, before pressure and selection panels forced him walk.

He watched on from the sideline in the rain on Friday night with the headphones on, while Dean Young occupied the coaches box.

McGregor had his supporters too, with seven Dragons fans chanting “we want Mary” long after full time and the club’s fifth win of the year.

Mikaele Ravalawa scored a double, fellow winger Jordan Pereira produced 16 tackle busts and Blake Lawrie was dominant up front, totalling 189 metres.

It marked just the third loss of the year for Parramatta – they are third on the ladder but missed a golden opportunity to go four points clear of the Sydney Roosters.

With their finals hopes all but gone and after the week they’d had, the Dragons had every right to fall out of the fight several times against the Eels.

After they fell behind early courtesy of a Clint Gutherson try, Zac Lomax produced his own piece of magic to help the Saints back within two points.

The Dragons centre leapt high to take a Corey Norman bomb out of Gutherson’s hands, before getting the ball away for Ravalawa to score.

The visitors took a 10-6 lead to the break when Ravalawa powered his way through Dylan Brown and Gutherson to touch down on the right wing.

Parramatta did have cause for complaint though, with Dylan Brown controversially ruled to have stripped the ball from Norman in the lead up.

But the Eels still had their chances.

Kane Evans barged over just after the break and the Eels regained the lead only for Lomax to level the score with a penalty goal following his own bust.

Then with 16 minutes to play came the crucial moment.

With scores locked at 12-12, Kaide Ellis was denied a try when he collected a Ben Hunt grubber.

Reed Mahoney was ruled to be offside when the ball rebounded off him in the play, giving Lomax the chance to kick the Dragons two points clear.

Mahoney then went agonosingly close to snatching the win for the Eels when he chased through on a Blake Ferguson grubber only to get the Steeden down on the dead-ball line and allowing the Dragons to hold on.