CAPITAL GAIN FOR GIANTS! It's lucky 13 for Brown's men.

Byline: CHRIS ROBERTS 

IT might not have been a vintage Giants performance.

But after collecting another two valuable Super League points to maintain their magnificent third spot in the table it hardly seemed to matter.

Obviously, it will to Nathan Brown and his coaching staff as they took another huge step towards securing a play-off spot after victory at the fifth-placed Quins.

Yet with every sign on this latest trip to the capital suggesting there's still far more to come from this team, the future does continue to look very bright.

Even though Harlequins took a 13th-minute lead with a close-range try from Luke Gale and then mounted a late rally to chalk up two further scores, they never seriously threatened to deny the Giants a 13th win from 20 top-flight starts.

In fact, from the moment in-form winger Leroy Cudjoe finished off superbly in the corner after good work from Michael Lawrence and Brett Hodgson landed the touchline goal to level the scores midway through the opening period, there really only looked like being one winner.

Clearly, the Giants' task was helped in the wake of Cudjoe's score when Quins' chief playmaker Chad Randall was forced to retire from the contest.

But even if the home side's influential hooker had stayed on, Huddersfield appeared to have far more weaponry to deal with their opponents' threat.

With Cudjoe and Lawrence so effective on the right, Luke Robinson and Scott Moore making valuable ground down the middle and Eorl Crabtree coming off the bench to provide his usual spark, it wasn't long before the Giants took a firm grip.

Having said all that, however, it wasn't until the 38th minute that the visitors finally took a lead they were never to lose.

With the forwards making the initial in-roads, Liam Fulton collected 30m from the home side's line on the sixth tackle.

His superbly-executed high 'bomb' to the left corner failed to be collected by Chris Melling.

The ball fell loose and leading Giants tryscorer David Hodgson was on hand to take full advantage and finish off.

Hodgson again converted and the visitors had a 12-6 half-time lead.

Quality Huddersfield defence prevented Daniel Heckenberg from scoring within five minutes of the restart.

And that acted as the Giants wake-up call as they extended their lead two minutes later with a delightful try.

On the sixth tackle, Brett Hodgson lofted a delightfully-weighted kick to the corner for Cudjoe to outjump the defence and palm the ball back into the path of Lawrence to plunge over.

Again Hodgson added the extras and the Giants looked to be in complete control.

That seemed to be reinforced with 13 minutes remaining when Hodgson banged over a penalty to give his side a 14-point lead.

But, instead, that was to signal a late, brave Quins' charge as the Giants clocked-off believing their job had been done.

In the 69th minute, Melling collected a super Danny Orr kick to the corner touch down and make it 20-10.

Then, four minutes later, Matt Gafa somehow kept the ball alive to enable Melling to grab a second.

Orr landed the conversion and, at 20-16, a contest that for so long had failed to get out of second gear had finally sparked into life.

But the travelling band of Giants fans who made up an extremely healthy chunk of the 3,916 crowd needn't have worried.

With their side's defence getting back to the task at hand, the Harlequins' challenge began to fade and the Giants finished with a bang.

In the 77th minute, the hosts spilled a ball under heavy pressure on their own 40 and the lively David Faiumu was on hand to pick up and immediately feed Brett Hodgson to race away and score under the posts, with his conversion making it 26-16.

And then, as the hooter sounded, Liam Fulton chipped ahead to Cudjoe, who then kicked back inside for the chasing Brett Hodgson to follow up and touch down.

The Huddersfield captain then added the goal to make it six from six, and it was another job very well done.

CAPTION(S):

ON THE DEFENSIVE: Giants forwards Liam Fulton (above, right) and Keith Mason get to grips with Harlequins prop Danny Ward, while (right) Luke Robinson and Scott Moore put in their tackling stint. GOOD TIMES: Darrell Griffin (top) celebrates with the fans at the end of the game at Quins, with the victory confirmed by Brett Hodgson's second try (above).