John Cartwright 'scared' by Gold Coast Titans' loss to Newcastle Knights

TITANS coach John Cartwright last night admitted he was "scared" his side was able to concede so many points so quickly.

TITANS coach John Cartwright last night admitted he was "scared" his side was able to concede so many points so quickly as an embarrassed Gold Coast outfit began a trip to Darwin for a week-long soul-searching camp.

The Titans' top-four aspirations were ground into the mud at Newcastle's Hunter Stadium in a 46-16 round 16 drubbing at the hands of the Knights, who were ruthless, amassing a 36-0 halftime lead.

A frustrated Cartwright and his team will retreat to Darwin today to regroup after admitting they saw few signs of the ambush.

"It scares you that you're capable of giving up that many points," Cartwright said.

"I don't like that feeling and it's not something that I've felt all year, and I've got faith that the boys will turn that around.

"I'm not going to slash my wrists over it or anything like that, but you just don't like to think that your side is capable of giving up that many points in a short period of time.

"There's plenty there to work on but we'll (be able to) look at it as a one-off when we set that result right next week."

John Cartwright

Cartwright refused to blame the fifth-minute loss of centre Jamal Idris to a broken leg and dislocated ankle - and the subsequent backline reshuffle - for the loss, and complimented the Knights on their game plan.

The Knights aimed at the Titans' right-side defence and exposed greenhorn Anthony Don to a horror afternoon as James McManus crossed for four tries on his flank.

"(The loss of Idris) was a big blow but I don't want to use that as an excuse. We were just a little bit loose right from the start," Cartwright said.

"We seemed to be kicking out of our own 20m, they seemed to be kicking out of halfway and that's generally a sign that you're not where you need to be.

"To me, it didn't look like the (Titans) side I've watched for most of the year. That's worrying signs.

"But they attacked really well, they hit the spot perfectly so many times and we should have done a better job at stopping it."

The Knights scored at better than a point a minute in the early stages, sprinting to 36-0 after half an hour before the points mercifully dried up in the final 10 minutes.

But the Titans' efforts to turn things around suffered an immediate blow when they knocked on from the restart after halftime and allowed McManus a fourth try as the Knights went to their left-side well again.

For the next 20 minutes the Titans held firm, and even threatened to score themselves, but when Jarrod Mullen stepped his way through the line, the margin was 46 points and the Titans were looking down the barrel of their equal largest loss.

Kevin Gordon's runaway try in the 68th minute and Greg Bird's four-pointer allowed them to avoid that indignity, and when David Mead scored from dummy-half in the dying seconds the Titans sealed a second-half win and restored some pride.

"It was a bit of a shock really," Bird said. "A few errors in our half and ... it was a bit of a shock."

The Titans have several promotional appearances in the Northern Territory this week ahead of their round 17 "home" fixture against the Penrith Panthers.