Huddersfield Giants 34 Salford City Reds 38: Huddersfield’s fall from grace leaves losing Giants red-faced

Phil Sidlow’s 75th-minute try ultimately proved the difference as the unlikely Salford hero profited with his second score following some woeful line defence.

But it was just one of numerous glaring mistakes from a Huddersfield side who are supposed to be genuine title challengers.

“I don’t think we’ve put a real good game of football together for three or four weeks now,” admitted coach Nathan Brown, his side slipping from first to fourth during that spell.

“We’ve definitely been down a fraction and have numbers of players who aren’t playing consistently well, just well in patches.

“Our right edge had a tough day at the office and we brought on a great bench but all they did was tackle because they kept giving them the ball back.

“Then we had people who wanted to referee the game as opposed to actually concentrating on doing their job right – people wanting to blame people.

“That’s what happens when you don’t play well.”

After forward Sidlow had stretched out off Keith Mason’s tame tackle for his first on 65 minutes to put Salford 32-28 ahead, Giants scrum-half Danny Brough thought he had rescued his side when he latched onto Scott Moore’s scampering break to score between the posts.

But Leroy Cudjoe could not prevent the re-start going into touch to gift Salford – who had not won in their previous four games – an instant chance to respond and they did.

Even then, Luke Robinson slipped Jason Chan through with seconds remaining but his final pass did not stick only finding Sidlow and proving reminiscent of much of a disappointing Giants afternoon.

Huddersfield captain Kevin Brown, who announced on the eve of the game he is joining Widnes next season, was lucky to escape only with a penalty after his frustrations then boiled over, collaring the Salford player with a reckless swinging arm.

At one particularly dismal point in the first half, David Fa’alogo off-loaded to no one in his own half, gifting Sean Gleeson position to fend off Brough and skip away for Salford’s third try.

The Kiwi second row quickly fumbled another wild pass from Scott Grix, Luke Robinson took a quick tap penalty but threw forward before Brown inexplicably fumbled at the play-the-ball as the unrecognisable mayhem continued.

Grix atoned slightly by ushering Michael Lawrence over on the stroke of half-time after earlier Brown and Brough efforts before two back-to-back Eorl Crabtree close range efforts then put them 28-22 ahead on 50 minutes.

However, while their ball security generally improved, their discipline and defence did not, Jodie Broughton exposing their fragile right side once more before Sidlow capitalised too.

Luke Patten continually caused chaos down that channel, engineering two first-half tries for Joel Moon following Broughton’s third minute opener, and Huddersfield never recovered.

Huddersfield: Eden; McGillvary, Cudjoe, Wardle, George; Grix, Brough; Mason, Moore, Ferguson, Lawrence, Chan, Brown. Substitutes: Crabtree, Robinson, Fa’alogo, Faiumu.

Salford City Reds: Patten; Broughton, Moon, Gleeson, Williams; Holdsworth, Smith; Jewitt, Howarth, Sidlow, Ashurst, Nero, Wild. Substitutes: Owen, Anderson, Palea’aesina, McPherson.

Referee: T Roby (York).

Captain Brown on his way to rivals Widnes

Huddersfield captain Kevin Brown spoke of his embarrassment over yesterday’s 38-34 defeat by Salford but denied the announcement of his shock move to Widnes played a part.

Brown stunned the Giants at the weekend by revealing he is to quit the club with two years left on his contract to join the Stobart Super League basement outfit on a four-year deal from 2013.

“The boys knew I was leaving, it was a matter of which club,” Brown said. “I told them and they were really supportive.

“It’s not the reason we didn’t perform. We’ve got to look away from excuses and look at ourselves more. There were some embarrassing efforts.”

The 27-year-old Brown, who joined Huddersfield from Wigan in 2006, said the reason for his move was personal and admitted he spoke to his old club about a return to the DW Stadium.

“The main reason is family,” he said. “My nan had cancer last year and I’ve just had a kid and realised how important family are.

“This opportunity came up and I couldn’t turn it down.”