HUDDERSFIELD Giants' opening home game in Super League X is just 15 days away!

Next Saturday, the Giants travel to Leigh in their first competitive fixture in 2005 before turning their attentions to the visit of Hull to the Galpharm Stadium on Sunday, February 20.

And it's fitting that the club from the east coast should be Huddersfield's first visitors this year.

After all, it was Hull who provided the Giants with their most exciting home fixture in 2004.

The date was Saturday, September 4 and coach Jon Sharp and his side were given little hope of pulling off a win against a Hull side who were sitting in second spot in the Super League ladder and had already booked a place in the top six end-of-season play-offs.

With injuries hitting Sharp's small squad exceptionally hard, the bookies were expecting the Giants to suffer an eighth successive defeat which would have signalled the end of their top-six challenge.

But at the end of an absorbing 80 minutes, the home side had turned the form book upside down and were savouring an unlikely 22-20 triumph - unlikely, that is, to everyone outside the Giants camp.

"We were well aware that nobody expected us to win," reflected Giants football manager Stuart Sheard.

"But that obviously wasn't our attitude. If you enter any game not thinking you can win you may as well stay at home and do something else!

"However, we knew it wasn't going to be easy.

"After a fantastic first half of the season when we were in the top six throughout, the injuries that we had so successfully avoided early on began to hit us. Our challenge lost its momentum.

"And, I have to admit, that going into the final stages of the Hull game it wasn't looking good.

"With six minutes remaining we were losing 22-10 and had two men in the sin-bin.

"Then out of the blue Brandon Costin scored and added the conversion to make it 22-16.

"And a few minutes later James Evans showed incredible strength to score and Brandon again kept his cool to land the conversion.

"I think everyone was stunned.

"We just couldn't believe we had done it. I don't think I have ever witnessed anything quite like it, and I'd be surprised if I saw anything quite like it again!"