Staring down the barrel of a sixth straight loss, the Titans looked set for another thrashing when they fell 20-0 down inside 27 minutes.
But captain Tino Fa'asuamaleaui stood tall, Jayden Campbell impressed on return and Phillip Sami and AJ Brimson bagged doubles to claim a most unlikely victory.
The win came days after it emerged a clause in Hasler's contract would allow the Titans to sack the veteran coach at year's end if the battling club failed to make the finals.
Asked if the win meant more to him given the scenario, Hasler attempted to play down the issue in Newcastle on Friday night.
"I'm not like that. It's not about me," Hasler said.
"I can't do anything about the headlines, it's just all opinion.
"What's that old saying? It will be fish-and-chip wrapping tomorrow. It's on the internet as well now, but you can order fish and chips on the internet."
The only concern for the Titans will be a cloud now hanging over Fa'asuamaleaui, after he was placed on report for dangerous contact following a first-minute head clash with Knights prop Leo Thompson.
If the Queensland forward incurs a grade-two charge or worse, unless he beats it at the judiciary he would miss the Origin series opener.
Those problems aside, Fa'asuamaleaui is virtually carrying his club.
The Titans captain got through 70 minutes on Friday night, totalled 241 metres, made 39 tackles while breaking four, and threw five offloads.
And most crucially, he produced the key play that swung the match for the Titans.
With Gold Coast going nowhere, the lock threw an offload to allow Jayden Campbell to put the Titans on the front foot.
On the next play Fa'asuamaleaui again got his hands on the ball and Campbell touched it twice before throwing a long cut-out ball for Sami to score.
Sami reduced the margin to 20-12 early in the second half off a Jaylan De Groot cut-out ball, before Khan-Pereira did superbly well to send Brimson over.
And with time ticking down, Brimson was ruled onside when he chased down an on-the-run grubber from Khan-Pererira to make it 24-20 with to minutes left.
The Titans could have star Kieran Foran back next week, with Hasler adamant there is still life in the side after a 3-6 start.
"It's a start, a good start considering where we were at half time and what they had to overcome," Hasler said.
"We start getting a few troops back as well. I think most sides who haven't had their players on the field regularly have been losing games."
Gold Coast's win left them equal on points with Newcastle, whose left edge fired early on Friday night before the second-half collapse.
While five-eighth Fletcher Sharpe bagged a double to go with last week's hat-trick, poor handling meant the Knights had no good ball in the second half.
They made eight errors after the break, didn't have a play-the-ball on the Titans' line, and eventually ran out of puff in the home-ground capitulation.
Adding to their woes was a knee injury suffered by strike winger Greg Marzhew, with Newcastle's flogging of South Sydney last week their only victory in their past seven games.
It's not a good habit to get into, getting ahead of yourself after one game," coach Adam O'Brien said.
"I'm not saying everyone did that, but we got into a lead and fell into a hole. It's a bit embarrassing to tell you the truth."
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