Huddersfield Giants suffered a narrow defeat against Salford Red Devils on Friday night. Despite a spirited fightback, scoring two tries in the last minutes, the Giants were unable to claim the two points in a key game in the fight for the play-offs. Elliot Wallis received a red card for the Giants, who played the last 20 minutes with 12 men.
The game was just the third time Huddersfield have played at home so far this season. In April, they faced four away trips in a row, winning three. Their only defeat of the month came away st St Helens, where they lost to a late drop goal. The Giants now enter a run of home fixtures, with five home games in May, including games against Warrington Wolves and Wigan Warriors.
Huddersfield Giants boss takes aim at Loop fixtures
Credit: Imago Images
Defeat against Huddersfield sit in eighth place, four points behind Salford. Watson has now taken aim at the loop fixtures. Speaking to BBC West Yorkshire Sport, he stated that they give a false impression of the Super League table.
“The one thing you can get is a misreading of the league table. We’ve played Saints twice already, we’re going to play Wigan twice next week.
“We’ve still not played some teams once yet. That’s the one thing I don’t like about the loop fixtures, because I don’t see why you wouldn’t play everybody once and then you start going into your loop fixtures, and then everybody once again.
“So at the moment, the table reads interesting because some teams have probably played London two or three times, or Castleford two or three times potentially and managed to pick up wins there.
“Whereas, for some of the teams they’ve ended up playing say St Helens twice, or Wigan twice”
Watson believes Giants are well-placed
Credit: Imago Images
When asked how he assessed the season to date, Watson stated he was happy, overall, despite two consecutive defeats. He believes Huddersfield will be in the playoff mix at the end of the season.
“If we’d have gone for a start from last week, I’d have said really good, if you start at this game, we’ve been alright” Watson said.
“To read into it right this moment in time I say we’re in a decent place.
“We knew we were going to be in a fight, with the teams like Leeds and Salford, and teams like that in and around that playoff spot there.
“We managed to beat Leeds the other week. Salford we’ve come up short of this week, to be fair. But we will be in and around that mix.”
