St George Illawarra have ended Gold Coast's unbeaten home record but it was the Titans coach who was most pleased and proud of his depleted side's performance.

Dragons coach Nathan Brown took aim at his senior players after a thrilling 26-22 comeback victory at the Titans' Skilled Park fortress.

The NRL's cross-field kicking kings overcame a poor start to grab the win with two second-half tries from bombs in front of a crowd of 26,453.

Lightweight Titans winger Ben Jeffery spilled both under immense pressure as first Chase Stanley and then Michael Lett swooped to score.

Lett's try with just 12 minutes left gave the visitors a 24-22 lead and five-eighth Jamie Soward, who proved the difference with five goals from as many attempts, converted from near touch.

St George Illawarra's sixth straight win propelled them past the teetering Coast on the NRL ladder.

"I'm happy that we fought back and won and I'm happy we're the first side to win up here ... but as an overall performance I thought it was disappointing," Brown said.

"Without being disrespectful to the Coast, our first 40 minutes I thought was very slack and we had some senior players who set some poor standards and it was like a cancer and we played lethargic and slow.

"I thought some slackness on our part helped them on the way."

The Coast have slipped from top spot to sixth after their fourth loss in five matches.

But coach John Cartwright - who was missing his best four players with Scott Prince, Anthony Laffranchi and Ashley Harrison on Origin duty and Luke Bailey sidelined for the season - was rapt with the spirited effort.

"I don't think I could have asked for much more as a coach," he said.

"If I had been asked for 22 points before the game I'd be pretty happy with that, I would have been happy to try and defend that.

"I thought probably that was structurally as good as we've attacked all year."

Stand-in skipper Preston Campbell was adamant the underdogs' performance showed the Titans would make their maiden finals series.

Jeffery, one of the smallest wingers in the game at 178cm and 78kg, was too upset to speak after the thrilling match.

While Brown praised him for saving the Titans' bacon two or three times in defence, Cartwright admitted Jeffery needed some extra equipment.

"(We have to) get him some stilts I suppose," he said.

The match's first try-scorer in the fourth minute, Jeffery had the chance to be a hero in the final three minutes but he was unable to leap above Lett on the Dragons line to score from a Mat Rogers cross kick.

In an enthralling finish to an entertaining match, Dragons prop Jason Ryles then lost the ball in his own quarter but a sloppy play-the-ball cost the depleted Titans the chance to pull off a great escape.

St George Illawarra appeared to have all the run midway through the second half before Rogers scored an intercept try for the Titans to regain the lead at 22-18.

Rogers outran Soward on a 30m sprint to the line after pouncing on a floating off-load by dynamic interchange forward Lagi Setu.

Setu was instrumental in the Dragons fightback from 8-0 down midway through the first half to grab the lead at 20-18 in the 56th minute with Stanley's try.

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