VIDEO: Emotional night has Stone full of praise at Headingley

Although it was far from pretty, having not won in nine games, the Australian did not mind in the slightest.

It was also an emotional night for the club after the sudden death of owner Ken Davy’s wife Jennifer on Wednesday.

Stone said: “Everyone can be a little bit proud tonight.

“We’ve not had a lot to cheer about in the last few weeks but we stood up, came to Leeds, where it’s always a tough game, and we competed hard.

“Obviously that’s what’s been needed.

“It probably has been emotional for some of the guys, especially some of those who have been here for a while and understand Jenna’s influence on Ken and how he initially got involved in Giants through her with her being a Huddersfield girl and fan.

“She was a classy lady and they are a classy couple who have supported this place a long time.

“We all respect that and it’s good the boys showed that courage and desire tonight.

“It’s a bit disappointing at times to think something like that needs to happen for them to do it but it was great to see,” he added.

The return of Danny Brough after suspension proved influential.

Stone, whose side lost to Championship strugglers Swinton Lions on Sunday, added: “Conditions probably suited us and any time you get Broughy in those conditions it helps.

“He kicked well and his kicking game was instrumental.

“We had more intent in defence, too; that forced Leeds into more errors and sucked a bit of juice out of them. The defensive effort was the best we’ve been so far this year.”

Leeds coach Brian McDermott saw his side – who were level 12-12 at the break – miss the chance to go top of Super League.

But he said: “We’re not good enough to lead the comp’.

“We’ve shown that tonight.

“I give Huddersfield a lot of credit as I thought they were tenacious and showed a lot of endeavour.

“But it was not a great game. I didn’t think they played particularly well but I thought we were really poor.

“Some of their goalline defence in the second half effectively got them the win while we tried to invent plays and ran up our own backsides.”