Penrith coach Anthony Griffin has refused to dig the boot into sacked touch judge Jeff Younis, accepting blame for his side’s loss to the Sydney Roosters.

The Roosters ran over the top of the Panthers with a controversial Michael Gordon try in the 73rd minute sealing the 14-12 victory.

NRL referees boss Tony Archer later admitted Latrell Mitchell’s pass to Daniel Tupou in the lead up was forward and the try should have been pulled up by Younis, who was in line with the play.

Younis, who also missed an incident earlier in the game when Tupou clearly stepped on the sideline while in possession, was dropped for this weekend’s fixtures.

However, Griffin said the game was lost due to his side’s leaky defence – which let in 10 points in the nine minutes before the break – rather than the whistleblowers.

“We should had had control of that game before that period,” Griffin said.

“We missed a couple of a couple of tackles before halftime and I think that was the ball game.

“To get to the back of the game and you’re neck-and-neck when you had a chance to win it, that’s when you get yourself into trouble.

“I thought we were the better team on the night but when you get two teams coming together in a hot game, if you haven’t taken care of business yourself, you leave yourself open for things like that to happen.”

Griffin urged his side to take control of their own destiny rather than point figures at the officials.

“I’ve got no issues with the referees,” he said.

“And at some stage later in the year, if we’re playing hard enough and consistent enough, one of those calls will go our way.”