There was no 300 match celebration for Nathan Hindmarsh as Parramatta somehow manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and lost 23 to 22 against Penrith.

With one second to go Parramatta held a six point lead but then a try after the siren sent the game into overtime. Luke Burt's attempt at field goal during golden point again almost closed out a victory but hit the post and it was to be Penrith's Luke Walsh who hit the winning field goal in the second stanza of extra time.

As expected, the Eels shifted their side around to match up to last week’s winning side with Jeff Robson dropping out of the side, Jarryd Hayne moving to six, Etu Uaisele taking over the wing spot and Pat O’Hanlon coming onto the bench.

The first half was an even affair. The Eels let themselves down early with errors while Penrith let Parramatta back into the game with undisciplined play around the ruck.

The Panthers scored first when Jennings hit the ball wide and sucked in three defenders leaving his winger David Simmons unmarked after Etu Uaisele unneccesarily came in off his wing. Travis Burns nailed the sideline conversion to get the Eels off to a shocker of a start.

However, the Eels put on the next two tries. Jarryd Hayne had a pretty ordinary first half with the ball in hand but he threaded a grubber into the Panther’s in-goal and winger Adrian Purtell muffed his attempt to pick up the ball. Instead the ever-present Justin Horo was there to touch down and score while Luke Burt converted to tie the scores up.

The evergreen Eels veteran then laid on a try chiming into the attack smartly from fullback, piercing through the first line of defence then throwing a one-handed pass out to an unmarked Etu Uaisele who ran though for the try. Burt’s wide conversion never diverted away from its path over the black dot and the Eels were up 12 to six.

However, Penrith struck back as the half closed out with Luke Walsh grubbering towards the post and the ball alluded Luke Burt and was instead grounded by Lachlan Coote. Burns converted to send the teams in level at half-time.

Both teams suffered a few injury scares early in the first half. First Coote went down, but shook off a shoulder injury then Luke Lewis went down and was forced to come from the field, as did second rower Nigel Plumb. Jarryd Hayne soon after received some assistance but fortunately was right to go and not long after he was able to set up Parramatta’s next try when he beat his first man and then offloaded to Reni Maitua to score and put the Eels back in front. Burt missed a simpler kick than his last one leaving the Eels up 16 to 12.

However, then came a huge play from Panther’s fullback Lachlan Coote who put a bit hit on Uaisele who had broken clear of the line but dropped the ball in the collision. Coote collected the pill and fired it out to David Simmons who went over in the corner and the scores were again even, and stayed that way after Burns missed the sideline conversion.

Suprisingly, the biggest impact Jarryd Hayne’s move to five-eighth has had for Parramatta has been the improvement to the side’s kicking game. Another Hayne grubber couldn’t be clearned up by Penrith bounced into the arms at Casey McGuire and with a bit of help from Taniela Lasalo he got the ball down for the match winner. Burt converted for the Eels 22 to 16 advantage.

It looked like the match was sealed but then the referee ruled a strange turnover that gave Penrith a last ditch chance with just a second left on the clock. From that play somehow Penrith managed to manufacture a try after the play looked to have broken down a number of times. Burns converted to tie up the match and extend it into overtime.

The Eels almost closed out the match again when Luke Burt’s attempt at field goal hit the upright. The match went into the second stanza of golden point and after a break down their right side Luke Walsh was left with a simple field-goal to seal the match.

Parramatta drops five points from the eighth position and just have not been able to put together back-to-back victories. They will just about have to go through the rest of the season undefeated to make the finals now.