First and foremost, I would like to apologize for the delay of this post (like any of you were eagerly anticipating it anyway...) and I would like to apologize in advance for how biased this review could be, remember I am a Huddersfield supporter.
After both sides had suffered humiliating defeats on Friday to Crusaders and Warrington, respectively, and wanted to get "back on the horse", for want of a better phrase. It was a terribly slow beginning to the match from both sides, Huddersfield had the best chance to score after a neat chip ahead for David Hodgson to run on to, he jogged and by the time he had got there the ball had gone out. Mind you, it makes a change for him to be actually running forward rather than doing his usual crab impression. (Apologies, to all David Hodgson fans, but it is the truth!)
Salford were the first to score, after putting pressure on the Giants' line from three consecutive sets. Adam Sidlow the scorer with Daniel Holdsworth converting giving Salford a 6 point lead, which lasted for all of five minutes until some smart play by Darrell Griffin set up second rower Luke O'Donnell to power over and score, Danny Brough added the two points to go level at 6-6. Giants captain Kevin Brown had a great chance to score but he knocked on 20m out. Salford scored again to gain a 6 point lead on the Giants for the second time that night, this time the try scorer was Daniel Holdsworth who scored from his own kick which had bounced cruelly in the Giants' in goal area.
Giants soon levelled the scoring again at 12-12 after Shaun Lunt scored from not too far out, Brough converted. The Giants then scored twice to take a 24-12 lead before Salford scored again not long before half time. The half time score was 24-18 in Huddersfield's favour.
The consensus in the players' lounge at half time was that Huddersfield still weren't playing well enough and with the amount of chance that we had we should have had them dead and buried already.
Back up to our seats we went. The Giants extended their lead to 10 points through a Dale Ferguson try, Danny Brough missed the conversion straight after I had said "He's gonna miss this". Huddersfield's defence certainly improved in the second half and scored twice in quick succession, the second from an unlikely try scorer in Darrell Griffin getting the four points, Brough Converted which took the Giants to 40 points. No fewer than 6 minutes later did Shaun Lunt created captain Kevin Brown's try from a brilliant kick, Danny Brough converted and left the field soon after. With the game settled in Huddersfield's favour Nathan Brown took the decision to bring him off and safe him for Catalan on Saturday. Salford scored soon after to take their tally to 22 points but the game was never in doubt and it was mere consolation for them and the few fans that travelled over for the game, it gave them something to cheer about for a couple of minutes anyway. Until Jermaine "Jerry" McGillvary went over in the corner to take the Giants to 50 points, Scott Grix was on target and the final score was 52-22. The official man of the match went to Darrell Griffin but my man of the match was Shaun Lunt who was brilliant the whole time he was on the pitch.
It wasn't the greatest performance in the world by Huddersfield, not by any means. Our defence was anything but perfect in the first half but it got better the further into the game they went. Back to the top of the table the Giants went, but improvements are definitely still needed.
The table after round 12.
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