HUDDERSFIELD Giants should have won this match.

It's as simple as that.

Given the amount of possession and territorial advantage they enjoyed, particularly in the second half, the Wolves of Warrington should have been dead and buried well before the final hooter.

The fact the Giants didn't was down to a combination of factors.

For a start, they were guilty on several occasions of taking the wrong option, with Stanley Gene's the most glaring example when he broke clear and passed inside to an opponent with Marcus St Hilaire on his outside with a clear run to the line.

Then there were numerous times when Giants' kicks to the corner fell kindly for defenders to gather, rather than into the path of an attacker to score.

That must have happened at least three times.

But, most controversially, was the decision by referee Ronnie Laughton to disallow two Giants' `tries', one in each half.

The first came in the 27th minute, with the Giants trailing 6-0.

Iain Morrison drove to the line and, as he was tackled, the ball appeared to be knocked down by a Warrington hand.

With both sets of players shaping up to play on, the quick-thinking Brad Drew kicked to the corner for Hefin O'Hare to run on and score.

Referee Laughton then consulted with his touch judge and ruled Morrison had knocked-on.

To say the Huddersfield players were livid was an understatement.

And there was to be a repeat performance of the emotion in the 66th minute when it was 12-4.

A kick-through from Thorman caused hesitation in the home side's defence and Drew raced through to pounce on the ball in acrobatic fashion to touch down.

The celebrations from the visitors suggested it must have been a nailed-on score.

But not in the eyes of Laughton and the in-goal touch judge, who ruled Drew had been out of play.

Again, the reaction from the usually mild-mannered Giants hooker spoke volumes, and that frustration was clearly still evident as Drew was sin-binned for dissent following another decision against his side with five minutes remaining.

Drew's late departure effectively signalled the beginning of the end of the visitors' brave challenge as Lee Briers landed the subsequent penalty to make it 14-8.

Yet what a cruel end it proved to be after such a battling Giants' performance.

After the now almost customary concession of an early try, this time to Toa Kohe-Love after five minutes, Huddersfield began to enjoy periods of dominance.

They were temporarily knocked out of their stride when Gene was placed on report for alleged illegal use of the elbow in the 22nd minute.

But five minutes later O'Hare's `try' was disallowed before captain Thorman opened his side's account with a penalty.

Unfortunately, Warrington were the quickest to respond as Brent Grose raced 50m through a rare hole in the Huddersfield defence to touch down for a second converted try.

A Thorman penalty on the stroke of half-time cut the deficit to 12-4, and the Giants were still very much in the contest.

And that was underlined as the second-half story began to unfold.

Warrington did have the odd chance to extend their lead, but for much of the final 40 minutes the visitors were on top.

As well as Gene squandering the opportunity to put St Hilaire over in the 54th minute, James Evans, Paul Reilly, Gannon and Drew all came desperately close to scoring before Drew has his `try' ruled out,

But with 12 minutes remaining, the Giants were not to be denied as Chris Nero drove into the heart of the Warrington defence to send Gene racing in at the corner to make it 12-8.

Unfortunately, however, there was to be no satisfactory ending.