Having taken a big step towards avoiding the wooden spoon with a win over Canberra, Gold Coast coach John Cartwright now has his sights set on denting West Tigers' finals hopes.

The Titans made it two wins from three games with their 26-18 victory at Skilled Park on Saturday, temporarily leapfrogging Parramatta into 15th place on the ladder.

And Cartwright is desperately hoping his club can avoid the dreaded wooden spoon after occupying last spot since round 15.

"It definitely hurts where we're sitting on the table," he said.

"It hurts more than I can probably put into words.

"We want to make it hard for the Tigers (next Monday).

"If we can knock them out of the eight, I want to knock them out of the eight.

"If we can knock Parramatta over (in round 26) and finish the season on a high, that would be tremendous."

The attrition of this season on both teams meant that a combined 18 topline players were unavailable for the clash.

And it was the Titans left feeling it the most, down to their last 17 fit players after the late week scratchings of veteran Luke Bailey (neck) and young half Beau Henry (ankle).

They joined Scott Prince, Nathan Friend, Ashley Harrison, Kevin Gordon, Ryan James, Michael Henderon and Mat Rogers in the stands, meaning the Titans had to call up departing back Esi Tonga (Parramatta) from Queensland Cup outfit Ipswich.

William Zillman shifted to five-eighth and Anthony Laffranchi stepped up to the front row to cover their losses.

The Raiders were left reeling by the loss of NSW fullback Josh Dugan, this time sidelined with a groin injury.

He joined the likes of Tom Learoyd-Lahrs, Trevor Thurling, Terry Campese and Matt Orford in the casualty ward.

Errors outnumbered highlights for most of the first half and the Titans sent groans through the modest crowd of 10,230 when they bombed three tries.

Steve Michaels couldn't reel in a Zillman kick, Laffranchi knocked on over the line and Greg Bird was ruled to be held short by referee Alan Shortall.

"It was probably played by two sides who looked a little down on confidence," Cartwright admitted.

Joel Thompson strolled over in the 20th minute to claim the first points and the lead for the Raiders. But soon they would relinquish it and never get it back.

The Titans' Dominique Peyroux claimed his first NRL try in the 28th minute, with teammate Will Matthews crossing just before halftime.

Flyer David Mead scored an brilliant individual try six minutes into the second half.

Michaels made up for his first-half miss with a 53rd minute try when he grounded a Zillman bomb to give his club an 18 point buffer.

The Raiders, lacking any real spark in attack, managed to find the tryline again 13 minutes from time, stand-in fullback David Milne scoring a consolation try with David Shillington barging over in the 73rd minute which reduced the margin to six.

The loss leaves Canberra in real danger of claiming the wooden spoon just 12 months after their miraculous surge into the 2010 finals. They sit on the same competition points as the Titans, only ahead of them on for-and-against.

"We certainly come up with some pretty good errors," coach David Furner lamented.

"It was (hard to sit through) because I know what the team has put in during the week.

"You play one, play two errors there, you're putting pressure on your team. It just makes it hard to fight back."

Danny Galea received a poke in the eye and Michael Picker a head knock, but both are expected to be fit for round 25.

One standout for the club was the efforts of lock Shaun Fensom, who put in another Herculean effort in defence with 58 tackles.

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