ANXIOUS Giants officials are hoping to put the bitter disappointment of Sunday's poor home crowd against Wakefield behind them and look to the claret and gold faithful to lead the club's continued Super League play-off bid.

A crowd of just 3,621 watched the Giants secure a 26-14 derby win to keep alive their hopes of finishing in the top six.

But chief executive Ralph Rimmer believes such a task is far harder if the fans fail to back the team through the turnstiles.

"If we are to continue to move forward we have to generate bigger attendances," he said.

"Our hard core of supporters are absolutely magnificent and I know their backing will play a vital role in lifting the team in our remaining four League games.

"But the simple fact is that under the salary cap system we need to greatly improve our attendance figures if we are to greatly strengthen our squad.

"No-one can argue with what we have achieved on the field this season, but we can only achieve so much on our own.

"It's no co-incidence that the current position of clubs in the Super League table is almost a mirror image of the table showing a club's core support of home fans.

"At the top we have the likes of Leeds and Bradford, who are the leaders of the competition, while at the bottom we have Halifax and Wakefield.

"Our core support is just above the 3,000 mark and we're battling for a top six spot against the likes of Warrington, Widnes and Castleford - the club we visit on Friday night - who are all around 6,000.

"That obviously makes a huge difference to the amount of cash available to spend on squads.

"One of my goals is to put ourselves in the same attendance category as the three clubs I've just mentioned."

Many believe Huddersfield's decision to switch kick-off times from 3.00 to 5.30 could have held attendances back.

And Rimmer admits this is something which will be reviewed at the end of the year.

"Our average attendance right now is 5,000, which is 1,500 ahead of the last time we were in Super League," he added.

"But with home wins against Leeds, Wigan and St Helens we would have hoped for better.

"We will certainly review our kick-off times, just like we will review every area of our business at the end of the year."

Next story