Gold Coast 26  North Queensland 20

A MAIDEN finals appearance is still within reach for the Gold Coast Titans after they prevailed in a torrid battle with North Queensland last night.

The Titans withstood a barrage of enterprising Cowboys raids in the second half to hold on by six points.

Queensland Origin playmaker Scott Prince returned from a broken arm for the Gold Coast and was magnificent after a seven-week absence, laying on two tries for NSW forward Anthony Laffranchi.

Titans coach John Cartwright praised Prince's brave performance but said his side still had a big job ahead to make the top eight.

"We're not getting carried away but it is a big pressure release," Cartwright said.

"[Prince] was presented with the medical advice and knew the risks. I just can't talk highly enough of his courage."

Prince said his arm came through the game well, particularly after he was targeted in defence.

"It's not too bad, I was just happy to get through the whole 80 minutes. I didn't really sleep that much last night," he said.

The Cowboys also received a timely boost in the form of Australian halfback Johnathan Thurston, who returned from a four-week absence after knee surgery.

The Cowboys entered the game as favourites after they snapped a 13-game losing streak with a rousing win against the Bulldogs last weekend.

And they were gifted a chance to take this game into golden point when Luke O'Dwyer was sin-binned for repeated offside infringements.

But winger Ty Williams put a foot into touch on the left sideline as he made a dash for the corner with less than two minutes left on the clock.

The Titans appeared to have the Cowboys' measure in the second half when they streaked away from a 14-all half-time deadlock to 26-14 in the blink of an eye through tries to Preston Campbell and Esikeli Tonga.

The cellar-dwellers hit back with a 57th-minute try to Dayne Weston, but that was the final score.

GOLD COAST 26 (A Laffranchi 2 P Campbell M Rogers E Tonga tries S Prince 3 goals) bt NORTH QUEENSLAND 20 (L O'Donnell D Weston T Williams J Williams tries J Williams 2 goals) at Dairy Farmers Stadium. Referee: B Sutton. Crowd: 17,605.