Adam O’Brien accused his team of trying to play like the Titans in their disappointing and error-riddled 26-6 loss that continued a horror 10-year drought on the Gold Coast.

The Knights had plenty of ball, but were guilty of some poor errors and squandered multiple try-scoring opportunities and O’Brien believes they were not patient enough.

“It was disjointed, but we didn’t come here without effort, we put effort in but we just put it into the wrong areas early on,” O’Brien said.

“We made something like eight errors attacking the tryline just chasing. We probably tried to play a bit like the Titans and that’s not who we are.

“We chased the big plays and the in-between moments and just got obsessed with doing that and we were a bit lateral, so it’s a bad day at the office for us, but we can learn from it.

“Certainly over the bye we can address a couple of things and get back to the team we are capable of being.”

O’Brien wants his team to play the long game and not try and score off every set, before they have done the dirty work.

“They were the two things, our discipline with the penalties and then our discipline to have a long game mentality,” O’Brien said.

“We play our best footy when we are kicking into corners and we’re building it with our defence and I just thought early on, and it is an area of discipline when you’re trying to chase these little quick kills.”

Knights skipper Kalyn Ponga had a bad night with a number of errors and admitted he and the team need to not push the nevelope in attack.

“I just didn’t think we were patient enough,” Ponga said.

“I think I had a hand in that to start the game. Energy was there and effort was there, but just like the coach said, in the wrong areas.

“Errors built pressure on ourselves in that first half, and then kind of crept into our second half as well.

“12-0 at half-time is not that bad, but they just crept into the second half. Disappointing because it’s not the mentality that we know we have, and that we wanted to come up here with.”

O’Brien couldn’t put his finger on the losing record on the Gold Coast, but admitted there were lessons his side need to learn over the bye week.

“I don’t think the players get obsessed with that, but certainly there’s no doubt, if you’re honest, we’ve got a bye next week, so that’s always a danger, that you’re just wanting to get this game done and regroup over the bye and that sends you into Round 5,” O’Brien said.

“That’s human nature to allow yourself to go into those places, but it’s not going to help you with your performance.

“It’s a lesson that we’ll take, and we’ll use the bye to address some of this stuff and getting back to being a real gritty team, not looking for the fast, quick kills.”

The Knights missed their back-rowers, with O’Brien revealing Dylan Lucas will miss the next six weeks with a hamstring injury.

“Dylan Lucas will be out for about six weeks,” O’Brien said.

“It’s a pretty significant hamstring. I couldn’t completely rule Leo Thompson out, but unlikely and then Kai’s got one more game to serve.

“We certainly missed the two back-rowers tonight and Leo, but I thought our young debutant was great.

“He had some really good touches, and I’m excited for the future for Jermaine (McEwen). He’s one guy down there, well there’s a fair few that can hold their heads up. We just weren’t at our best.”

The bye comes at a tough time after a convincing loss, but Ponga believes the team can do plenty of work over the next two weeks to get their season back on track.

“That’ll be tough to let that one sit for two weeks until we play our next one,” Ponga said.

“Definitely, you’d want to get back into it, get back to work, and put in a performance that we know we’ve got.

“But, take our lessons. It’s a bye, but it will still probably work, so we’ll be right. We should learn from this one.”