Cowboys buck Gold Coast's streak

North Queensland put an end to Gold Coast's nine-game winning streak at Skilled Park with a 34-18 upset NRL win on Friday night.

A near-perfect first half performance set up the win as fullback Matt Bowen signalled a return to his devastating best with two tries, carving the Titans up in attack and cutting them down in defence with some courageous last line try-savers.

Unbeaten at home this season, the Titans simply had no answer to the sublime performances of Bowen and inspirational skipper Johnathan Thurston, playing off the off the back of a powerhouse game from Origin front-rower Matt Scott who clocked up some big metres down the middle.

With the old firm of Thurston and Bowen back together the Cowboys still have hope of making the finals.

They led 22-0 at half time before the Titans finally got on the scoreboard through a converted try to winger Kevin Gordon, who did well to pluck a William Zillman chip kick out of the air and ground it.

But instead of triggering a Titans comeback at 22-6 it merely sparked the Cowboys into action with two quick tries tries to Bowen and forward Steve Rapira to push the lead out to 34-6.

The Cowboys posted four tries, three of them converted by Thurston, in the first half.

After losing their past two games, the eighth-placed Cowboys headed to Skilled Park with their season on the line.

Some critics had already written them off because of their tough run home, combined with a season-ending injury to hooker Aaron Payne and the absence of forward enforcer Luke O'Donnell for another week or two.

But with Anthony Watts rolling out of dummy half and linking with big men Scott, Shane Tronc, Carl Webb, Antonio Kaufusi and Steve Rapira, there was little the Titans could do.

With the game lost, the Titans finally gave their fans among the 20,315 crowd something to cheer about.

Hooker Nathan Friend and centre Esi Tonga found their way to the try line within two minutes of each other late in the match to put some respectability into the scoreline.

- AAP