The Giants' season goes from bad to worse.

In a shocking all-round display, hapless Huddersfield slumped to the bottom of the table of Super League XXI with a demoralising 36-22 defeat at fellow strugglers Wakefield.

It was the Giants’ sixth defeat from seven 2016 top-flight starts and gives beaten boss Paul Anderson plenty of food for thought ahead of Monday’s home clash against Salford Red Devils.

Even with a first appearance of the campaign for fit-again prop Craig Huby and a debut from scrum half Ryan Brierley, the visitors were hopelessly second best for much of this disastrous derby duel.

It was a massive low point for the Giants in anyone’s book, with a woeful first-half showing backed up by an even more gut-wrenching second-half no-show.

The first half was a real horror show for the visitors.

They may have trailed by a slender four-point margin, but it could have been much worse.

As well as taking the opening spoils three tries to two, the Wildcats also bombed a couple of good chances as the Giants seemed intent on committing Super League suicide.

If they had been charitable in last weekend’s home defeat to Catalans Dragons, they were even more generous this time around.

Although Huddersfield did take the lead after nine minutes when new boy Brierley and the hard-working Leroy Cudjoe linked up for Jermaine McGillvary to cross for his fifth try of the season, converted by Danny Brough, there had already been early warning signs.

Just two minutes earlier, Jacob Miller fumbled Liam Finn’s grubber under the posts in one of Wakefield’s healthy number of opening-half chances.

So, it was no great surprise when the Wildcats raced into a deserved 18-6 lead.

They were level in the 13th minute when Tom Johnstone finished acrobatically in the corner for Linn to land the first of his three first-half conversion, and they took the lead 13 minutes later when Brough fumbled Miller’s grubber on the sixths and Mikey Sio said ‘thank you for the gift’ by touching down under the posts.

Then it was Jared Simpson’s turn to make a mess of deal with kicks.

He got away with it first time when Danny Kirmond almost pounced as the young full-back waited for the ball to roll out of play.

But Simpson wasn’t so luck the second time around, with his hesitation from a Stuart Howarth kick to the corner giving Reece Lyne enough time to pounce.

At that stage, it was looking so bleak for hapless Huddersfield.

Fortunately, they were handed a vital lifeline just before the break.

Good work from Craig Huby and Brough gave Jake Connor the chance to charge through and stretch out for a converted score and as the hooter sounded Brough banged over a penalty to make it 18-14, and some precious hole had been restored.

Wakefield, however, were immediately on the front foot after the interval, with good defence equipped to prevent Joe Arundel from crashing over within five minutes of the restart.

But tackling definitely wasn’t on show three minutes later as Connor grabbed his second by shrugging off a couple of half-hearted challenges to score and level the scores, with Brough failing to add the extras.

Aaron Murphy was denied moments later when he crossed the line from a Simpson pass that was ruled forward.

A quick Brough tap penalty on the 20 almost caught Wakefield napping as he sprinted 60m with a scorching break.

However, just when it looked as if the Giants were starting to get on top, the Wildcats struck for a fourth time as Max Jowitt sliced through an unconvincing defence to put his side back into a six-point lead.

With referee Gareth Hewer intent on blowing for penalties on a monotonous regularity, it was no great surprise when there was a free-for-all in the 63rd minute, with Larne Patrick and Mikael Simon both being sent to the sin-bin for their part in the proceedings.

It was an incident that appeared to galvanise the Giants, with Brough’s long pass putting Murphy over in the corner, although it proved too wide out for the Giants playmaker to convert the goal.

And the Giants fate was effectively sealed with eight minutes remaining when Johnstone collected just close to his own line and slipped out of several half-hearted tackles bore racing away to score under the posts for Finn to add the goal and leave the Giants needing to score twice.

It then became three with two minutes remaining as Scott Moore’s short pass close to the line sent prop Nick Scruton strolling through a huge gap for a sixth converted try.

It was an awful end to an awful performance.