Huddersfield Giants know the race to secure a top-eight Betfred Super League place is getting tighter by the minute.

Wakefield Trinity moved three points above Simon Woolford’s Giants and Leeds Rhinos with a 44-22 win over bottom club Widnes Vikings.

Leeds are next in action on Thursday night, when they visit second-placed Wigan Warriors, while the Giants head over to tackle second-bottom Hull KR at the KCOM Craven Park on Friday bidding for a sixth successive league win.

Two points could be massive for the Giants, because Catalans Dragons are just a point adrift in the final bottom-four slot, and they take on third-placed Castleford Tigers in France on Saturday.

Wakefield head coach Chris Chester admitted his side were disappointed with their defensive efforts in their win over Widnes.

Wakefield ran in eight tries on their way to a routine victory, which strengthened their place in top eight.

But Chester was less than impressed with a second-half performance during which Widnes scored all their points - and revealed his players shared his view.

“I let the players know they have got to be a lot more ruthless defensively,” he said.

“Widnes scored too many easy tries and we came up with some poor individual decisions and pretty average contact.

“The lads were disappointed too. They were deflated at the end of the game.

“We expect better standards than we had in the second half.

“Having said that the first 40 minute were the best defensively we’ve seen, though it flipped on its head in the second half.

“However, we got the two points which is what we always wanted. It puts us in a really good position.

“I am not looking at the teams underneath us. We are two points off fifth. That’s where we are looking. We are not looking at Catalans, Huddersfield or Leeds.

“We are looking at Hull FC and the teams above them.”

Chester revealed the influential former Giants player Danny Kirmond suffered an early knee injury and faces a scan in the coming days to determine the full extent of the problem.

Despite a record 11th successive league defeat, Widnes’ interim boss Franny Cummins has not given up hope his side can avoid an end-of-season relegation scrap.

“Until it is mathematically unable you keep going,” said Cummins, whose charges showed spirit after the break, scoring four tries.

“At the moment we are doing some good things, but we are doing a few silly, uncharacteristic things which are making us work twice as hard as he opposition.

“I was disappointed (after defeat at Salford) because we didn’t show the team that practises.

“The pleasing thing from this game is we showed more strike than we have had. But we are still finding these hard ways to play the game.

“We are a team that works hard but at times we work too hard. In the first half we had six less sets than a big Wakefield team.

“The opposition dont need handouts from us. Wakefield were good, but we gave them some leg-ups.”