Titans coach John Cartwright is taking the good with the bad after his side showed sound resolve to defeat the Warriors 24-18 in its season-opener at Skilled Park on Sunday afternoon.
Gold Coast made a shaky start to the match with handling errors early in the match giving New Zealand plenty of the ball.
The Warriors made the home side pay streaking out to a 18-6 lead mid-way through the first half with big winger Manu Vatuvei crossing twice.
But a late Anthony Laffranchi try just before the break buoyed the Titans as they headed in for the sheds with the deficit reduced to just six points.
The late try was the catalyst Cartwright's men needed as the Titans eventually levelled the match in the second, with pint-sized star Preston Campbell securing the win when he latched onto Nathan Friend's grubber and dived under the posts with 10 minutes to go.
"I suppose there wasn't a lot and there was a lot to like about it," Cartwright said after the match.
"We turned over a lot of ball and we gave them plenty of chances at us. Defensively I was very happy; they scored most of their points from kicks… that will happen but we were giving them the field position to put those attacking kicks in."
"We came into the shed in a good frame of mind, we didn't play well but I suppose that's the whole basis of your footy. If you can hang onto the ball, no matter what you do with it you stop the other side from scoring and we kept giving them chances to score,"
"To come in only six points down and at that stage of the game, it was important we came out on a high. Six points is a huge difference to 12 points." Cartwright said.
The Titans boss paid tribute to Campbell's match-winning try. But he said the full-back may be in doubt for next week's clash with the Rabbitohs after copping an accidental knee to the head late in the second-half.
"He's very instinctive, he's as good as anyone as I've seen at that. You know people can say it's luck but it's not luck because he continues to do it. He just bobs up in the right areas and I think he does it best from full-back,"
"It's a bit of a concern (Campbell's head injury) because he has had a history of head knocks. The doctors will keep a close eye on him for the first 48 hours and that will tell whether or not he plays next weekend." He said.
In the build up to Sunday's match all eyes were on Gold Coast's new acquisition Greg Bird who had an indifferent debut as he struggled to get into a rhythm alongside captain Scott Prince.
Cartwright acknowledged that it wasn't one of Bird's best games but said he was particularly pleased with the enforcers committed aggression on the field.
"It wasn't one of his best games, he's a ball player and he goes hard at the line. He's going to make a mistake every now and then but what I liked about it was how he reacted to it. I don't think I've seen aggression in defence like he brings in my time here at the club,"
"Whilst Birdy made a few errors with the ball he really shortened a few