Giants suffer narrow loss

Huddersfield Giants 16 (4)

Tries: McGillvary, English, Sezer
Goals: Sezer (2)

Hull FC 18 (10)

Tries: Naulogo, Fonua, Faraimo

Goals: Sneyd (3)

Giants: Golding; McGillvary, Cudjoe, Wardle, Wood; Gaskell, Sezer; McQueen, Moore, Matagi; Edwards, Wardle; Lawrence

English, Holmes, Turner, Hewitt

Hull FC: Shaul; Faraimo, Fonua, Tuimavave, Naulogo; Connor, Sneyd; Bowden, Johnstone, Sao; Griffin, Savelio; Cator

Satae, Fash, Brown, McNamara

Huddersfield Giants fell to another narrow defeat in the Betfred Super League, losing 18-16 to Hull FC in a tense midweek battle at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Ratu Naulago opened the scoring in the 7th minute, with the Black and Whites heaping the pressure of the Giants in the early stages. The Giants could have been down by 10 points in the 23rd minute, with Josh Griffin touching down, but the referee called the play back due to obstruction.

The Giants turned up the pace and strung together a fluid attack, releasing the familiar combination of Cudjoe to McGillvary to score the Giants first try, however Giants captain Aidan Sezer missed the conversion, meaning Huddersfield trailed 6-4. The Giants went further behind seven minutes later, with Mahe Fonua crossing over a minute before the break, but Sneyd failed to add the extras, leaving Huddersfield trailing 10-4 at the end of the first half.

Huddersfield came out strong in the opening stages and would wait just 5 minutes into the second period to draw level in the match, with Matty English diving magnificently to connect with an Aidan Sezer kick to level the scores at 10-10, but the lead was relatively short lived, as four minutes later, a Jamie Shaul break through the centre of the pitch set up a pressure set which set up Bureta Faraimo to crash over to return Hull FC the lead, with Sneyd converting the try to restore FC's six-point cushion.

Aidan Sezer took measures into his own hands after a penalty forced pressure on the Hull line, finding the gap to the left of the posts to cross over, kicking the conversion to tie the game with just under a quarter of the match to go, and tried to give the Giants their first lead of the game with a drop goal in the 71st minute, but pulled it wide of the post.

Kenny Edwards was called for an offside, giving Sneyd an opportunity to give his side the lead, and he made no mistake, leaving the Giants two points down with 5 minutes on the clock, but despite the Giants best efforts, a resolute Hull defence held firm and the Giants fell to back-to-back defeats.

The Giants now look forward to a game against Wakefield Trinity, next Thursday afternoon on OurLeague, and will look to end their season with a flourish in the final games of the Super League season.