GIANTS favourite Stanley Gene has called on every member of Huddersfield's Super League squad to `pull their socks up' or risk missing out on a top six play-off spot.

Saturday's awful 24-16 defeat at Salford leaves the eighth-placed Giants two League points behind London Broncos in sixth.

And while Gene was full of praise for the Huddersfield turn-out at The Willows, which was around half the 2,682 crowd, the Papua New Guinean admitted the players failed to keep their part of the bargain.

"The club urged the fans to come out in their numbers at Salford and get right behind us, and they did just that," said Gene, who was back in action after undergoing knee surgery last month.

"We had hoped in return to give them a performance of which they could all be proud. We obviously failed to do so.

"We all know we didn't play well on Saturday, and we all know that as a squad of players that was totally down to us.

"If we are going to continue to push for a place in the top six play-offs, we simply have to win the games like these.

"We've now got nine games left to book our play-off place, starting with next Sunday's home game against (basement side) Leigh.

"What we have to do is pull our socks up and make sure there are no more slip-ups like the one at Salford.

"We know we have the ability to do it. It's about time we starting showing it again."

For much of Saturday's contest, the Giants looked incredibly flat.

They did, however, spark into life with 13 minutes remaining when Andy Coley made an apparent spear tackle on Gene, with the challenge being placed on report.

The tackle clearly angered Gene and his teammates and within a minute they had fought back to 22-16, before conceding a late penalty to settle the outcome.

But Gene admitted it shouldn't have taken an incident like that to fire up the side.

"Obviously I was angry with the challenge, because you've seen players end up in wheelchairs through tackles like that," he added.

"But it shouldn't have taken something like that to get us going.

"With a play-off spot to aim for and great fans behind us, that should have been motivation enough.

"Let's just hope the frustration we all feel right now will help bring the best out of us against Leigh."