Tryscorer Oliver Roberts has admitted the Huddersfield Giants are already facing a do-or-die battle to avoid relegation from Super League.

Huddersfield couldn’t have got off to a worse start to their Middle 8s campaign as they suffered a 34-12 defeat at Salford Red Devils.

It means the pressure is immediately mounting on the Giants as they look to finish in the top three and avoid having to play in the ‘Million Pound Game’ between the sides finishing fourth and fifth, for the final Super League spot, in the final game of the season.

But Roberts knows all the focus has to be on bouncing back at home to Featherstone Rovers on Sunday and getting their challenge straight back on track.

“It’s already do-or-die as far as we’re concerned,” said the 21-year-old back-row forward, who took no consolation from scoring his first Giants try.

“The mood among the boys straight after the game was really down.

“After a good couple of weeks of training everyone was really up for this game.

“So to come up with the performance we did is just so disappointing.

“Rick (Stone) has come in and has been making a great deal of difference in training, but there’s very little he can do if we keep coming up with so many errors and giving away so many silly penalties. It’s up to us as players to fix things up.

“I know how low I’m feeling about the way things went – I take no sort of consolation at all from scoring my first Giants try after losing this game – and all I want to do now is get back out there and do what I can to change things around.

“That’s a view shared by all of the boys.”