A six goal haul to Joe Daniher wasn’t enough as the Bombers fell out of the top eight after a 30 points loss to the Western Bulldogs.

The Dogs made the most of their opportunities in the third term after an even first half, kicking seven goals from eight scoring shots, while the Bombers managed four goals from nine scoring shots.

Essendon trailed by 19 points at the final change but had the lion’s share of the territory throughout most of the last quarter.

Goals to Daniher and Orazio Fantasia saw the margin reduced to six points with four minutes left in the game.

But the Bulldogs dominated the final stages, kicking the last four goals of the game.

“A few of our skill errors and turnovers cost us in the end,” Essendon midfielder David Zaharakis said.

“We were trying to switch the ball and they defended it quite well.

“We just couldn’t get our ball movement going, but then when we did sometimes we turned it over or didn’t reward our good effort – we missed some easy targets or some easy shots at goal.

“We played into their hands, we know they want to play a quick up and back game … it was lighting that game … they got to play it on their terms.”

It took until late in the first quarter for the game to have its first ‘stoppage’ highlighting the speed at which the match was played.

Zaharakis, one of the Bombers best with 32 possessions, said the team needed to finish off their work better, including in the closing minutes of the game.

“They would have been just as fatigued as us in the last quarter, but when we got it back to a goal it was really disappointing the way we finished in that last five minutes," he said.

“We gave ourselves a chance … when ‘Raz’ kicked that goal there was only six points in it and we couldn’t get the next one from there … they kicked four goals in the last five minutes which is pretty disappointing that we didn’t finish off the game.”

The Bombers loss leaves the side a game out of the top eight ahead of a crucial match against Carlton on Saturday.

“We’ve got four games to go and we’ve got to pretty much win all of them to make the finals, so it’s a good challenge in front of us," Zaharakis said.

“The boys are ready for the challenge.

“We’ve been up for three weeks and we let one slip to today and we were pretty disappointed in that.”