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Gold Coast have ended St George Illawarra's chances of playing NRL finals with a late comeback win at Kogarah on Friday.
Gold Coast cruelled St George Illawarra's faint hopes of playing NRL finals this season by springing a late comeback to win 14-10 in Kogarah on Friday night.
The Dragons led 8-0 just after halftime, but the Titans scored three unanswered tries including two in the final four minutes to steal the win.
Former NSW star Tyrone Peachey was on the spot to collect a rebounded kick off the upright to level the scores at 10-all in the 76th minute.
Barely a minute later Titans half Jamal Fogarty raced through broken play to score, sealing their first win in three weeks.
It ends the Dragons' chances to make something of what has been a miserable season at the club.
A win would have placed them ninth on the NRL ladder just two points out of the top eight with four games remaining.
"It pisses me off, to be honest," said Dragons interim coach Dean Young.
"I know they're trying but you don't get two points for trying in this game.
"You've got to get your job done.
"They're all capable of doing their job and in the end we didn't get our jobs done.
"That's why we're sitting down there pretty shattered and the Titans are singing the team song."
However, the Titans showed not only defensive resilience but marked improvement in attack to score their fifth win of the season.
The Dragons had fullback AJ Brimson on their tip sheet but could not shut him down through the middle of the field.
In fact, knowing where he is at all times was one of three focus points set by Young this week.
"Brimson, knowing where he is at all times, having our defensive line connected, and defending their kicks," Young said.
"That's three of their strengths.
"They got a try off a kick at the post which you can call unlucky, or whatever, Brimson had two line breaks and again our line wasn't connected."
It was a dour first half as the Titans' try-line defence held firm under attack from the Dragons, who went into the sheds with a 2-0 lead.
Ben Hunt's crafty work around dummy half put Jacob Host over from short range seven minutes into the second half, going up 8-0 before the Titans started the fight back.
Winger Mikaele Ravalawa's poor read in defence was quickly exposed when Titans second-rower Beau Fermor shot a ball out to Phillip Sami to score.
"As a team we had probably six key guys missing tonight and whoever we put out there was desperate to play," said Titans coach Justin Holbrook.
"I just wanted us to be proud of our performance and proud of representing our club.
"I loved every minute of it. We kept chipping away, we couldn't get anything to go our way but we didn't let it distract us."
Titans forward Jaimin Jollife could be in trouble for a high shot on Tyson Frizell in the first half when he caught the State of Origin forward around the chin.
The Dragons will also be sweating on the charge sheet with centre Zac Lomax put on report for a dangerous tackle in the second half.
