Quite simply, the team with more to play for won last night. Huddersfield Giants maintained their slender hopes of a play-offs spot with a third successive engage Super League victory and Hull, two points off the bottom of the table but dreaming of Wembley, lost for a second time since their win in the Carnegie Challenge Cup semi-finals.

Injuries that have been the curse of Hull's season wreaked havoc, with Adam Dykes, Danny Tickle, Garreth Carvell and Peter Cusack limping off, while Huddersfield's enthusiasm could not be suppressed by the home team's disjointed remnants after they had led 14-0, but invited the Giants into the match through basic errors and poor decision-making.

Whereas St Helens, odds-on cup final favourites on August 30, had engineered a late comeback 24 hours before - Sean Long's last-gasp dropped goal beating Warrington Wolves 17-16 - Hull fell apart as they tried to chase down Huddersfield. “It encapsulates our season,” Richard Agar, their coach, said. “We've lost five or six games by a few points.”

Agar admitted that form was a “massive concern” for the final, although Hull would be better off forgetting about a first Wembley visit for 23 years and concentrating on their next two league fixtures. Hull were no match for the dynamism of the Giants forwards and Luke Robinson, their human buzzsaw at scrum half.

With Harlequins winning 40-16 away to Hull Kingston Rovers earlier and jostling with Huddersfield in a late push for the top six, the Giants kept up the pressure. After a thigh injury to Dykes, Danny Houghton scored with his first touch in supporting the barrelling Willie Manu. Tom Briscoe, Hull's 18-year-old wing, underlined his strength by wrestling clear from a posse of tacklers to again unleash Manu, who had Shaun Berrigan on his shoulder for the second try.

Tickle added a penalty, but a misdirected kick by Danny Washbrook and Briscoe being hauled into touch prompted Huddersfield to take the initiative. Crisp close-quarters passing by Stephen Wild and Ryan Hudson supplied the first of three tries in ten minutes, by Paul Whatuira, and a shaky Hull defence was again unlocked by Jamahl Lolesi reaching Chris Thorman's incisive grubber kick.

Tickle's restart sailed out on the full and Hull found themselves 18-14 behind at the break after Leroy Cudjoe and Robinson worked Martin Aspinwall over on the right. Graeme Horne's try briefly restored Hull's lead after 45 minutes before Thorman added the first of two penalty goals and Whatuira scrambled over after Briscoe dropped Robinson's steepling kick. Briscoe pulled a try back, but Robinson's late penalty put paid to Hull's erratic efforts to overhaul them.