St George Illawarra have momentarily taken some heat off coach Paul McGregor with a 24-16 victory over Gold Coast to finish a disappointing 2019 NRL campaign on a high.

McGregor’s future has been a hot topic, particularly since former Penrith supremo Phil Gould’s appointment to lead a review into the club’s football department.

But the Dragons did just enough on Saturday night to fend off an improved Titans outfit, who struck first in front of a home crowd of 11,274 fans at Cbus Super Stadium when Jai Arrow burrowed over between the posts in the 14th minute.

In a scrappy contest, befitting of its bottom-of-the-table status, the Dragons picked up the pace either side of halftime with a pair of impressive tries, starting with a Jonus Pearson long-range effort from a seemingly routine scrum movement.

Soon after the break, Gold Coast rookie Tanah Boyd was punished for a dropped ball over the tryline with Corey Norman scoring off the next set, capitalising on a Luciano Leilua offload just as he was being bundled out of play by six Titans.

From there, the game opened up dramatically with a series of end-to-end phases, as momentum shifted back and forth, but two Ben Hunt tries in the final 15 minutes sealed the deal for the visitors.

The first of those paved the way for Gareth Widdop to bring up the 1000th point of his NRL career in his final game before returning to England to play for Super League club Warrington.

Widdop was joined as a last-game winner by retiring Dragons forward Jeremy Latimore.

Michael Gordon was not so fortunate, his Titans side slumping to an 11th-straight loss despite the veteran fullback pulling off successive try-saving tackles on opposite sides of the field.

The defeat leaves departing Gold Coast interim coach Craig Hodges winless from 10 games at the helm across two stints and means the wooden spooners will finish the year with just four wins in their worst season.