THIS has to go down as one of Huddersfield Giants' most impressive results of the season.

Given little chance against second-placed Hull and having come in for some heavy criticism from the fans after a run of seven successive defeats, the Giants turned the formbook upside down to produce a stunning victory.

And the nature of the win could not have been more dramatic.

With six minutes remaining, the Giants were 20-10 behind and were down to 11 men following the sin-binnings of Jim Gannon for fighting with Hull's Richard Horne, who was also given 10 minutes, and Paul March for dissent.

But that didn't worry the Huddersfield heroes still left on the field.

Instead, it added to their resolve and proved beyond doubt that they are still willing to fight for the Giants' cause.

Almost predictably it was Brandon Costin who started the fightback, latching on to Sean Penkywicz's quick tap penalty to plunge over from close range.

Costin's conversion made it 20-16.

Hull still held the upper hand, but the Giants were not about to give in now.

From the restart, the visitors managed to contain Huddersfield inside their own half for the first five plays.

The home side had one last throw of the dice.

Costin's chip over the Hull defence on the last tackle was fumbled, Penkywicz pounced and immediately raced towards the visitors' line.

Desperate defence managed to bring him down, and then did the same to thwart Julian Bailey.

But the play was spread to the left for Costin to make good ground, take the tackle and pass to James Evans, who dived through a crowd of defenders to score.

It was 20-20, with Costin handed the chance to win the game for his team with the conversion.

At the end of the first half Hull's usually reliable Paul Cooke had seen his conversion from the same spot hit a post and bounce out.

Yet Costin's made no mistake.

It sailed through the posts and the Giants had turned round a 10-point deficit into a two-point lead in the space of three remarkable minutes.

It was an incredible end to a contest where sheer guts and determination proved the vital ingredients.

And there's no question that the win was earned on the back of a rock-solid first half.

In the opening 20 minutes the visitors threw everything they could at the Giants, helped in no small manner by referee Ian Smith, who again did Huddersfield few favours.

But all Hull had to show for their pressure was two Cooke penalties.

This was a day when the Giants' defence was in no mood to gift the opposition an easy ride to the tryline.

And as the half progressed, coach Jon Sharp's men came more into the contest.

In the 23rd minute Costin was unfortunate not to score from March's kick-through.

But four minutes later there was to be no mistake.

Gene's long pass inside his own half enabled Bailey to race clear, the Australian then drew full-back Shaun Briscoe before slipping the pass to Marcus St Hilaire to race away and score under the posts.

Costin converted and then landed a 33rd-minute penalty to extend the advantage.

Reilly almost extended the lead three minutes before the break, only to be held up over the line.

But on the stroke of half-time Gareth Carvell crashed through a tiring defence to level the scores, but Cooke crucially missed the conversion.

Costin and Cooke exchanged penalties at the start of the second half before Hull appeared to mount what appeared to be their victory charge.

A Jason Smith 40-20 set the ball rolling, with the subsequent scrum creating the position for Paul King to crash over for a converted score in the 56th minute.

Then four minutes later, Stuart Donlan lost possession on his own line and within seconds the ball was worked out for Richard Whiting to skip over.

Cooke's conversion attempt again hit a post.

But at 20-10 it didn't really seem to matter.

How wrong that could be!

By the time Gannon, March and Horne had been sent to the sin-bin in the 71st minute, Hull were probably thinking about their remaining two games and the fact they were looking odds-on to secure a second-placed finish.

And in light of the way the Giants have been playing in recent months that would have been understandable.

Thankfully, on this occasion, Huddersfield had other ideas!