Rugby League: Super League: Salford 10 - 36 Huddersfield

After waiting 44 years for last August's appearance in the Challenge Cup final, Huddersfield are now only two wins from making an immediate return, this time to Wembley rather than Twickenham. The Giants are the form team of the moment and slithered comfortably to an eighth consecutive win which takes them into the quarter-finals, with the class of their stand-off Kevin Brown providing the only highlights of a filthy night in Weaste.

Brown was one of three Wigan cast-offs in this Huddersfield team and pressed his claims to follow the other two, Stephen Wild and Martin Aspinwall, into the Great Britain squad by scoring two first-half tries. Wild also touched down after the break but it is the solid and occasionally brutal defence of their uncompromising pack that suggests Jon Sharp's team would be much better-equipped in a final now than they were in a heavy defeat by St Helens last year.

Salford, for whom the cup had become a distant second priority to their battle for Super League survival, still gave everything but were undermined by their own mistakes and suffered a worrying injury to their huge prop Gareth Haggerty, who was carried off an a stretcher with his neck in a brace after a lengthy stoppage.

The contrast with last weekend's carnival in Cardiff could hardly have been greater, with a thin crowd and heavy rain falling on one of the game's most antiquated venues, and for the first 20 minutes the teams ground out an old-fashioned cup tie to match the conditions.

That represented progress for Salford, who had conceded 50 points in each of the defeats by Wigan and Warrington that have cut them adrift at the bottom of the Super League table, and after falling behind to an early Chris Thorman penalty they even took the lead with the game's first try in the 24th minute. It was an excellent individual effort by the Australian stand-off Luke Dorn as he danced through the heart of the Huddersfield defence.

But the Reds' lead lasted less than five minutes, as a mistake from the kick-off from Haggerty gifted Huddersfield an attacking position from which Brown slid over. A second cruel blow for Salford followed in first-half stoppage time, again administered by Brown. This time he intercepted an over-ambitious pass by Dorn on the halfway line and showed his pace to hold off the cover with comfort, Thorman adding a tricky conversion to give the Giants a 14-6 lead.

It was extended to 12 points when Wild crossed on the right, but Salford battled back when Stuart Littler touched down Luke Robinson's kick. However they pressed self-destruct again when Jon Wilshere ignored the conditions and threw a potty pass which sacrificed possession near his own line, and this time Robbie Paul capitalised. The Kiwi veteran will already have been sniffing a seventh cup final appearance, even before Jamahl Lolesi and Chris Nero added further tries.

Salford City Reds Hodgson; Viane, Littler, McGuinness, Wilshere; Dorn, Robinson; Jewitt, Alker, Korkidas, Coley, Brocklehurst, Finnigan. Interchange Edmondson, Haggerty, Gower, Ratchford.

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

Referee R Silverwood (Mirfield).