Rugby League: Super League: Huddersfield 16 - 18 Salford

Salford cut Huddersfield five points adrift at the bottom of the Super League table as the Giants' decline since their Challenge Cup final appearance at Twickenham last August reached a new low. They have lost 10 of their last 12 games including all seven this season, raising the spectre of relegation for the second time in six years.

Their inability to beat a Salford team who had one win from their first six matches, were missing five senior players including captain Malcolm Alker and had his replacement David Berthezene sin-binned midway through the first half shot down any arguments that the Giants are in a false position.

However their coach Jon Sharp stuck to the script he has followed after almost every defeat. "We're doing a lot of good things but not enough good things to win games," he said. "We're creating opportunities but because we've not won a game the boys are pretty anxious, particularly near the try line."

Brad Drew, Chris Thorman and Robbie Paul, the three playmakers who combined so effectively in last year's cup run, seem to be on different wavelengths this year with Paul enduring a particularly unhappy time yesterday. His poor kick gifted Salford's scrum-half Luke Robinson the chance to score his second try when Berthezene was in the bin and the Kiwi veteran also squandered one try-scoring chance and conceded a crucial penalty.

Even then Thorman had the chance to pinch a point with a long-range 75th-minute penalty but his inability to kick it confirmed that the Giants would have been better off going for a match-winning try. Having said that, Salford were full value for their win with their coach Karl Harrison highlighting a lively debut by Berthezene, who was signed on loan from the Catalans last week. "Bertie's a bit of a character, he speaks fluent-ish English and his contribution to the team was outstanding," said Harrison.

They had been gifted a 6-0 lead by Huddersfield's Australian prop John Skandalis, who gambled that Jon Wilshere's kick would go dead and could only watch with horror as it bounced back for Robinson to touch down. Matt Gardner replied for Huddersfield from Drew's kick but Robinson's second gave Salford some breathing space. The Giants snatched at a lifeline in first-half stoppage time when Thorman supported Chris Nero's break. But Salford stretched away again when Turner scored from Robinson's excellent pass and Andy Raleigh's 72nd-minute try was too little, too late for Huddersfield.

Huddersfield Giants Reilly; Aspinwall, Lolesi, Nero, Gardner; Thorman, Paul; Mason, Drew, Skandalis, Jones, Raleigh, Wild. Interchange Crabtree, Jackson, Griffin, Hudson.

Salford City Reds Hodgson; Williams, McGuinness, Turner, Wilshere; Dorn, Robinson; Korkidas, Berthezene, Highton, Coley, Adamson, Finnigan.
Interchange Brocklehurst, Haggerty, Littler, Jewitt.

Referee R Silverwood (Mirfield).