‘Massive fortnight’ahead for struggling Huddersfield Giants, says Lee Gaskell

REALISTIC Lee Gaskell concedes bottom-placed Huddersfield Giants are facing a “massive” fortnight of action.
Huddersfield's Lee GaskellHuddersfield's Lee Gaskell
Huddersfield's Lee Gaskell

The West Yorkshire club have lost five of their opening six games, the latest being Thursday’s 40-12 home reverse to unbeaten leaders St Helens.

They had trailed just 16-12 early in the second period but then collapsed spectacularly following some catastrophic errors.

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Huddersfield host inconsistent Hull KR on Friday but stand-off Gaskell admitted: “We’re not in a position to be under-estimating anyone.

“We know Hull KR are capable of beating any side on their day and with half-backs like Danny McGuire and Josh Drinkwater they can cause anyone problems.

“It’s a massive two weeks for us now. We have Hull KR and then London at London so we have to get two wins from two.

“Saints punished us. Against a team like them you can’t give away anything let alone a couple of easy tries like we did.

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“After that, it was always difficult to get back in the game against a top side.”

Huddersfield had won at Wigan the previous week but were hindered by injuries once more, losing Joe Wardle (concussion) and Matty English (knee).

Gaskell, who started his career at hometown St Helens, added: “You don’t like blaming injuries but we have had our fair share this year. It’s been a hard period but there’s only us who can solve that on the pitch.

“One to 17 on that pitch should be capable of doing a good job and for the whole 80 minutes.

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“The first 50 minutes was pretty positive but we just took our foot off the gas. If we’d just held them there a bit longer who knows what may have happened.

“But Saints are the in-form team in the competition and they capitalise. I still live in St Helens and still know a lot of people who support them – all my family do – so it’s always good to face them.

“But it’s two points we’ve lost which is disappointing.”