FOR a second successive contest against St Helens, a crucial refereeing call went against the Giants and played a major part in sealing their fate.
Against Saints three weeks ago, several controversial calls by referee Ronnie Laughton proved decisive as Huddersfield were narrowly beaten in the Challenge Cup.
And now another key decision went against luckless Giants coach Jon Sharp and his side as they suffered another heartbreaking reverse.
On this occasion, it was just one call - or lack of it - from Karl Kirkpatrick which made all the difference.
It came in the 57th minute, with the sides locked at 18-18.
At that stage, the final outcome was simply too close to call, and it was clear the next try could prove crucial.
Unfortunately, it went to St Helens in the cruellest of fashion.
Sean Long kicked ahead on the sixth tackle and the ball bounced back for Vinnie Anderson to do likewise.
It went straight to Long, who was in an offside position, and the Great Britain scrum half teed-up Mick Higham to score the first of his two tries.
It was pretty obvious the Giants were aggrieved and, unfortunately, they were unable to find the right response.
Instead, their concentration lapsed, and by the time they had regained their composure, the visitors had added two further scores and Huddersfield's hopes of securing victory had been lost.
Even if Higham's try had been disallowed, there's obviously no guarantee the Giants would have gone on to win anyway.
In fact, in the final 15 minutes when Huddersfield were struggling to put 13 fit bodies on the field, they did well to score one late consolation try, let alone embark on a decisive victory charge.
But the way in which Higham's try was allowed to stand certainly raised the question of what might have been.
Until that crucial 57th-minute incident, the Giants were proving more than a match for their opponents.
After recovering from an early St Helens blitz in which Darren Albert and Paul Wellens crossed for tries and Jamie Lyon added the first two of his six conversions to make it 12-0 after 14 minutes, the home side began to enjoy a period of domination.
By the 21st minute, Huddersfield were just six points adrift as the impressive Chris Thorman, on his comeback after injury, collected 10m out and stepped past full-back Wellens to score by the post.
Thorman then added the extras, with usual goalkicker Michael De Vere not being risked because of a slight groin strain.
And, after Paul Jackson had been denied a try due to a correct call of crossing, Thorman grabbed a second try in the 36th minute to level the scores at 12-12 at the break.
Stanley Gene was the architect, with his reverse kick on the sixth tackle bouncing high off the Saints defence and into the very grateful arms of Thorman to score what was a fortunate four points.
At that stage, the Giants had the momentum.
But within two minutes of the restart, Lee Gilmour had sliced through some woeful defence to set up Albert for his second and the visitors were back in front.
Six minutes later, however, it was again a whole new ball game as Gene and Thorman worked superbly to send Paul Smith charging over.
Thorman again goaled to make it 18-18 and five minutes later was unlucky to see a 40m penalty attempt come back off a post.
That, unfortunately, was a taste of things to come as Higham twice and Vinnie Anderson raced over to make it 36-18 by the 68th minute.
Paul March's lovely reverse pass enabled Chris Nero to charge 30m to score with four minutes remaining, although that was to come as little consolation.
* The Giants Junior Academy side thrashed London Broncos 92-0 in their latest grading fixture. Full report tomorrow.
