Huddersfield Giants boss Nathan Brown column

Jul 2 2009 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Although it was excellent to win 34-10 at Salford, you were far from impressed with the performance. Do you still feel that way?

We went there to win, and we did just that, which was obviously pleasing.

Salford got us once at home earlier in the season and have also claimed a number of big names in Leeds, Bradford and Warrington, and there’s no doubt we did some good stuff at certain stages during the game.

But there were clearly some things we’ve needed to address in training this week.

We had some people in key positions who didn’t have a great night, which meant others had to rally around and, fortunately, were able to do some good stuff for us.

Overall, our attack was poor. We had no real composure and everything was rushed.

That’s something we need to fix.

But you must have been pleased with the platform the forwards gave you?

They did a pretty good job for us.

But I also thought the Salford forwards also did really well, because we had a pretty big pack out there who took some handling.

And if I had to single out any players for their performances at the weekend, most of them would be in the pack.

I thought Simon Finnigan and Paul Jackson were both very solid, and Eorl Crabtree always comes up with some good stuff. He’s a big man who has produced some big performances all year.

I was also pleased for Darrell Griffin, who’s really come back into form in the last three or four weeks.

On top of that, it was also good to see the back three (wingers Leroy Cudjoe and David Hodgson and full-back Brett Hodgson) making no errors and returning the ball well for us. That was also pleasing.

Once again, you’ve had a solid win on the road. Why is it the side consistently seems to be able to do this, but struggles to maintain good and consistent home form?

If I knew the answer to that I’d obviously look to take the away form back to the Galpharm with the boys!

It’s a pattern that began when Baloo (assistant coach Paul Anderson) and Keiron Purtill took temporary charge last season.

They helped establish some great away form and it’s good that it’s continued, but why that is remains a mystery.

To be honest, I’ve never been one for talking about having not won at this ground or that ground for the past 20 or 30 years, because that just reminds your players about it.

I don’t really need to know about records like this, what concerns me is making sure the players step onto the field and give it their best shot.