The smile was back on Nathan Brown's face after St George Illawarra took some of the heat off their under-fire coach with a much-needed 28-10 win over a disappointing Gold Coast at WIN Stadium.

The Dragons awoke to media reports claiming Brown's job was on the line after coming into the game on the back of an abysmal 2-6 record, but the players ensured their coach would live to fight another day with a five tries to two win.

It was far from a polished performance but it was two competition points nonetheless, though there was sobering news for the Dragons after the match when it was revealed Wes Naiqama had damaged the ACL in his right knee and would miss the rest of the season.

Despite the negative press coming into the match, Brown said he wasn't feeling under pressure to win.

"You always want to win regardless, this obviously helps," Brown said.

"You can't let it get you down because it's part of the job.

"I don't take it personally, people have got their job to do and I go to work with all the rest of the coaches and the players and all we can do is head in the right direction.

"Tonight showed that if we can keep working hard and the players put that effort in and we can control a few things I'm sure we can keep the wolves at bay."

Dragons co-captain Jason Ryles, who missed most of the second half with a knee injury which is likely to see him miss one game, said the players felt like they were to blame for their coach's predicament.

"We certainly feel responsible that's for sure," Ryles said.

"I went down to get the milk (on Friday morning) and I thought I'll get the papers and seeing (Brown) on the back it was like 'oh god', so I had to read it.

"I just couldn't believe some of the rubbish."

The match was in the balance with the Dragons leading 12-4 at the break, but two tries off a brace of Titans errors early in the second half allowed the home side to establish a match-winning 24-4 lead.

First Corey Payne powered over from close range before a Mat Rogers fumble set up the most enterprising piece of play of the night.

Packing into the scrum at lock, Dragons fullback Ben Hornby passed to Mathew Head who kicked ahead for flying rookie Jason Nightingale to scoop up the ball and dive over under the posts.

Scott Prince threatened a Titans comeback when he bamboozled the defence to go over untouched just before the hour before veteran Dragons hooker Simon Woolford snuffed out the resistance when he grubbered for Ashton Sims to score.

The Dragons started full of running and were rewarded for their early endeavour when Naiqama pounced on a Head grubber to make it 6-0 after nine minutes, but the Fijian international's night didn't last much longer.

The Dragons pounded the Titans' line but were let down by poor last play options until the Titans finally got on the board when Mat Petersen crossed out wide on the back of great runs by Anthony Laffranchi and Mat Rogers.

The Dragons ensured their first-half dominance didn't go to waste when Peek showed great persistence to support Dean Young to go over next to the posts just before halftime.

The loss was the Titans' third in a row, but Gold Coast coach John Cartwright said he would remain positive.

"Every side will go through it at some stage," Cartwright said of the flat spot.

"We've fallen into little bit of a hole but we've got to stay positive."

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