SAINTS let another game they should have sewn up by the hour mark slip away from them at Galpharm Stadium.

The defeat, by the narrowest of margins courtesy of a Danny Brough drop goal, consigned Saints to a third game without a win.

It could have been so different – and would have been had Saints shown a little more composure when they sat on a lead well into the second half.

They pushed daft passes in the home half, and chased the game, even when they still had a two point lead.

So instead of building pressure on the Giants, they increasingly found themselves under the cosh defensively at the other end.

To dampen the gloom Saints also lost James Roby through a leg muscle injury – a rare occurrence.

And although Lance Hohaia actually pepped Saints’ attack up when he came on at nine, Roby is always going to be a big loss.

Defensively this effort was a huge improvement on the weeks before – but no amount of effort could have prevented what turned out to be the match clinching try when the Giants went the length of the field in returning a gift of a kick from Lee Gaskell, before the ball was shipped left where Luke George had the pace to round Tommy Makinson for his hat-trick.

When Brough’s conversion hit both uprights and then the crossbar before going over you just knew it was going to be one of those haunted afternoons.

It started so differently, and after both sides had tested each other out Saints overcame the handicap of four penalties in a row against to reply to George’s 17th minute opener.

On 27 minutes Roby was clattered taking the ball blind from the base of the scrum by Jermaine McGillvary, who was penalised for offside.

The former Man of Steel showed he is not invincible and for once succumbed to the injury and did not return.

Hohaia has played Test football at nine, and did a great job on an afternoon when he had braced himself for warming the bench for another long stretch.

Two minutes later Saints opened their account, when off the back of a penalty on the line Gaskell ran hard to force his way over for a try.

Lomax’s conversion appeared to be blown in by an act of God – a pity the same gods changed sides in the second half.

Then it was Lomax’s turn to touch down, with an audacious chip through which was left to go dead by the nonchalant attitude of full back Greg Eden and centre Leroy Cudjoe with the young scrum half stretched out to touch down before it went dead.

Saints took a 12-4 lead into the break and were good value for it.

It took an error from Ade Gardner to allow the Giants back into the game, with the returning wingman letting a high ball slip through his fingers despite there being no great pressure on him.

As has been the case in such circumstances in recent weeks, Saints were again unable to regroup, with the ball transferred right to left for George to just get round the despairing tackle of Makinson.

Saints had that two point lead for another 20 minutes – a wasted period for them in which they failed to stamp their authority on the game.

They played a brand of panic football – forced passes, dropped balls and ended their sets at times quite sloppily – dying with the ball, going backwards or ending it with a disappointing kick.

The only thing that saved them at times was that the opposition were also guilty of errors.

In a way it was the way they ended their sets that became their undoing with Gaskell – who otherwise showed some great touches and chased his deep kicks magnificently – prodded a gift of a kick through which ended up with a full width and length of the field try.

Saints were so temporarily dispirited by that stage that the one pointer from Brough two minutes later was barely challenged.

But back Saints came and with seven minutes remaining a bit of pressure and swift hands allowed Gardner to squeeze in at the corner. In the absence of the dropped Jamie Foster, Lomax was the man with the responsibility of kicking the goal from the touchline.

Alas it was not to be.

The smart kicking game of the Giants, who kept drilling the ball downfield to work the clock down, ensured that they were going home with the spoils.

A disappointing ending for Saints, who deserved something from this game, and would have probably got that had they showed a bit more nous and maybe also had they been able to bring one more big man off the bench.

Sia Soliola put in a stint worthy of a prop forward – and Anthony Laffranchi showed some positive signs for the year ahead now that he is adjusting positionally to being and out and out prop.

But at times they look like they need another big unit out there to help clear the line, particularly when the opposition peg them back on their line with smart kicks.

Huddersfield: Eden; McGillvary, Cudjoe, Wardle, George; Brough, Grix; Crabtree, Robinson, Walker, Chan, Lawrence, Brown. Subs: Faiumu, Lunt, Patrick, Gilmour.

Saints: Wellens; Makinson, Shenton, Meli, Gardner; Gaskell, Lomax; Laffranchi, Roby, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Wilkin, Soliola, Puletua. Subs; Hohaia, Dixon, Clough, Flanagan.