Horne's sting has Giants smarting

Huddersfield 30 Hull 36

Huddersfield's chances of avoiding relegation from the Super League have been whittled down to the need to beat Wakefield next Saturday. Although they often matched the team that should finish third in the table, they made too many defensive lapses, typified by the two soft tries they conceded around 70 minutes.

Huddersfield made a bad start when they let Steve Prescott score from Paul Cooke's pass inside two minutes. Their response showed more determination, Troy Stone being held up on the line and Steve McNamara kicking their first points soon after.

The Giants went ahead after 25 minutes, Brandon Costin slipping out of a two-man tackle for Martin Gleeson to go in from 25 yards. McNamara landed his second conversion but undid the good work by knocking on under his own sticks. Scott Logan lost the ball, but a scrum controversially awarded to Hull saw Richard Horne sneak through. Not for the first time, Huddersfield felt the world was against them.

They could only blame their own poor tackling, though, when Logan Campbell set up Cooke for Hull's third try, yet Costin reduced the margin with a penalty before half-time.

Logan's sin-binning for ball stealing at the start of the second half gave Huddersfield renewed encouragement and they took advantage through Gleeson's clever pass to Andrew Frew. But Paul Reilly had a try disallowed soon after Logan's return, and Hull increased their lead with a Prescott penalty. Even with Chris Langley in the bin, Huddersfield bounced back with Frew rushing 90 yards.

They were right back in contention but then Rob Roberts lost the ball near his line and Hull had a huge overlap on the right for Prescott's second try, followed by his fifth goal.

McNamara's goal cut the margin to two points, but Huddersfield's chances disappeared when Smith put Logan through. Steve Craven then exploited an equally inviting gap while Frew's hat-trick try after the hooter was a frustrating reminder that Huddersfield had the attacking resources to have won.

Their coach, Tony Smith, felt the contentious first-half scrum decision had been pivotal. "It hurt us very badly even though we made too many errors," he said. "There were some dubious calls in that game." It was small consolation for Smith that his Hull opposite number, Shaun McRae, believes that if Huddersfield "play the way they played today, they'll beat Wakefield."

Huddersfield: Reilly; Frew, Gleeson, Moana, Langley; Costin, Moxon; Stone, Green, Marshall, Atkins, Gene, McNamara. Substitutes used: Lomax, Slicker, Thorman, Roberts.

Hull: Prescott; Crowther, Maiden, Campbell, Raynor; Horne, T Smith; Broadbent, King, Felsch, Logan, Grimaldi, Cooke. Substitutes used: Craven, Carvell, Last.

Referee: R Smith (Castleford).