BATTLING Huddersfield Giants gave mighty St Helens the fright of their lives before falling to an unflattering 34-24 final scoreline.

With five minutes remaining, the visitors were just 28-24 behind and looked the more likely to be the next to score.

But twice in those nerve-wracking final moments, the Giants saw potential chances go begging before St Helens rubbed salt into the wounds by stealing a last-minute converted try.

It was a cruel way to end a contest that could so easily have gone the other way.

In the 76th minute, Huddersfield worked the overlap just inside their own half, but James Evans' pass under St Helens' pressure went into touch rather than into the arms of winger Hefin O'Hare who would have had a clear run to the line.

Then two minutes later, the dangerous Chris Nero spilt the ball in a desperately brave effort to find a tryscoring pass.

And before the Giants had time to dwell on those chances, Paul Wellens was following up his own kick to score by the posts and add the conversion.

That proved the final act of an absorbing contest which, unfortunately, mirrored events at the Galpharm five days earlier.

On that occasion, Huddersfield were denied victory against Hull after allowing their opponents to open up a 22-0 lead inside 24 minutes.

Against St Helens last night, the generous Giants allowed their hosts to go 16-0 ahead after just 13 minutes!

And, just as against Hull, they have only themselves to blame.

Within a minute of the restart, Ben Roarty knocked-on inside his own 20 and the Saints worked the ball to the left for Lee Gilmour to plunge over with just 70 seconds on the clock.

Paul Sculthorpe landed the goal and it was 6-0.

Then after 10 minutes Stanley Gene knocked-on on halfway and the home side took full advantage by creating the opening for big Paul Anderson to crash over.

Sculthorpe again converted to bring up the 1,000th point in his illustrious career.

That, however, was to prove to be his last act as a leg injury forced him off just as St Helens scored try No3, again through the alert Gilmour.

At 16-0, thoughts were already turning to damage limitation.

But it would appear that such a term doesn't exist in this current Huddersfield squad's vocabulary.

Rather than raise the white flag, the Giants rolled up their sleeves and knuckled down to some impressive business.

In their first attack inside the Saints' 20 in the 15th minute, the influential Chris Thorman kicked through on the sixth tackle for James Evans to touch down.

Thorman added the extras and the Giants had finally announced their arrival.

For the next 15 minutes, the visitors were dominant, forcing St Helens to drop-out from under their posts and produce defence of the highest order to keep their opponents at bay.

So it came totally against the run of play when Wille Talau extended his side's lead with a well-worked try in the 33rd minute.

That made it 20-6 at the break, although Thorman did have the chance to reduce the deficit with a penalty attempt on the stroke of half-time but saw the effiort drift just wide.

But within nine minutes of the restart and after Paul Smith and Evans had both come desperately close, the Giants began to cut the deficit.

On the sixth tackle, Thorman again grubber kicked through for Eorl Crabtree to pounce and score.

Thorman's conversion made it 20-12 and two minutes later he was repeating the act after a try from Jonathan Grayshon following a now trademark lightning run from Paul White.

Unfortunately, two tries from Darren Albert in the 59th and 64th minutes enabled the Saints to extend their lead to 28-18 and the game appeared to have slipped through the Giants' grasp.

But in the 74th minute all that changed yet again.

And the key was again the pace of White.

Saints winger Albert may be officially the fastest man in rugby league, but White was still able to cut him down as the Australian attempted to break away.

White's challenge forced Albert to spill the ball, the Giants gathered possession and within a couple of plays Evans was breaking clear and crashing over the line for a fourth converted try.

At 28-24, a nail-biting finale had been set-up.

And if the outcome had ended up going in the favour of the Giants, no-one could have argued.

* Would supporters who attend monthly Senior Giants meetings please note that the next session will be on the second Wednesday in March and NOT this coming Wednesday.

The guest speaker will be League Express editor Martyn Sadler and the meeting takes place in the Panasonic Suite at the Galpharm Stadium (2.15).