Salford City Reds 30 Huddersfield Giants 18: Brown unrepentant as Huddersfield crash to lowly Salford

The Giants were without seven players – with Eorl Crabtree, Brett Hodgson and Lee Gilmour among those on the sidelines after Friday's romp over Catalans – but Brown admitted several could have played.

He said: "A few could have played but it is a long season and there are two competitions to go for and we would like to do well in them.

"If I had my time again I would have selected the same team.

"We weren't at the races from the start but Salford are a hard team to beat and maybe some of our players did not give them the credit they deserve.

"When opponents kick off in the second half and score those are signs that maybe we were not hungry enough. We will have learned a lot from this. There was always going to be an upset over the Easter weekend – unfortunately it was us."

Newcomer Danny Brough failed to impress, but Brown said: "Danny is new and although things weren't good for him they weren't for a few other people either."

Both sides finished with four tries apiece with the boot of Daniel Holdsworth the difference as he kicked 14 points while adding a try of his own. Salford snatched a fifth-minute lead with Malcolm Alker's 40-20 setting up the chance for Holdsworth to send Adam Sidlow crashing over.

Holdsworth tagged on the conversion and then added two penalties before converting Ashley Gibson's try.

Salford went further ahead from the restart after Stefan Ratchford's kick off went 10 metres and blew back for Holdsworth to charge through Hodgson's tackle and race under the posts to stretch the lead to 22-0.

Brough came to the Giants' rescue with a try-saving tackle on Stuart Littler before Holdsworth struck his third penalty.

Huddersfield had to wait an hour before David Hodgson went over in the corner against his old club.

But when Brough threw out a wild pass Tyrer pounced to make it 30-4 before Larne Patrick went over for the Giants' second try. Leroy Cudjoe made the scoreline more respectable going over in the corner with Paul Whatuira then notching the Giants fourth touchdown.

Salford: Fitzpatrick, Henry, Talau, Gibson, Tyrer, Ratchford, Holdsworth, Cashmere, Alker, Boyle, Sidlow, Sibbit, Swain. Substitutes: M. Smith, Littler, Leuluai, Jewitt.

Huddersfield: Cudjoe, Lolesi, Lawrence, Whaturia, D. Hodgson, Brown, Brough, Raleigh, Lunt, Patrick, Horne, Aspinwall, Grix. Substitutes: Robinson, D. Griffin, Faiumu, Walker.

Referee: I Smith (Australia)