Our togetherness is encouraging: Simon

defending our line and working for each other and that’s the most important thing.

“We weren’t great with the ball and we took a little step backwards with our attack but from a defensive point of view we were outstanding.

“They’re just getting better every week.

“The belief in the group is growing and that’s only going to benefit us in the coming weeks.”

With another resurgent team, Catalans Dragons, earning a 22-22 draw at Warrington, the spotlight falls on tonight’s derby between Leeds and Wakefield, the two teams directly below the Giants in the table.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t keeping an eye on it,” Woolford said.

“It’s obviously important with a couple of games to go.”

Alex Mellor and Leroy Cudjoe scored Huddersfield’s other tries and their victory would have been even more emphatic but for an off day with the boot by Danny Brough, who missed all four conversion attempts.

“It was unlike Broughy,” Woolford said. “Apparently the kicking tee he usually uses has disappeared so he was using a different one.

“He had a bit of an off night with the goal-kicking but I thought late in the game he came up with great general-play kicks. His experience really shone through in the last 20 minutes.”

Wigan scored first and last through Sam Tomkins and Tom Davies but were outplayed for long periods in between and a first defeat in 12 meetings with Huddersfield means they cannot catch St Helens before the start of the Super 8s.

They lost skipper Sean O’Loughlin midway through the first half with a recurrence of a calf strain and coach Shaun Wane was forced to give a debut to 18-year-old Samy Kabula after John Bateman pulled out late with a groin problem.

“We were poor,” Wane said. “There were too many pressure releases, our skill was poor and we gave away too many penalties.

“We didn’t give ourselves a chance to win the game, it just wasn’t good enough.

“We had a bit of disruption with a young back-rower playing in the centre and a front-row playing in the back row, and then we lost Lockers.

“But they were the best team. It meant a great deal to them, you could see that with the way they celebrated at the end.”

It was far from ideal preparation for Wigan’s next match, a derby with St Helens next Thursday.

“We got beat and we’re hurting so that’s a good thing going into the Saints game,” Wane said. I would rather have won this game but we won’t need any motivating.” WIDNES boss Francis Cummins is hoping a return to the Halton Stadium today will help his side arrest their 13-match losing run ahead of the Qualifying 8s.

The visit of Hull KR will be the first home game as interim head coach for Cummins, who was appointed as the successor to Denis Betts in the wake of a 19-6 defeat by Wakefield in May when the players were booed from the field.

The Vikings have since suffered another five consecutive defeats on the road which have condemned them to a place in the Qualifiers and Cummins’ focus now is to turn around their fortunes in time for the crucial seven-match mini series which will determine the make-up of Super League for 2019.

“We’re desperate to win, sometimes a bit too desperate,” Cummins said.

“The last time we were at home it wasn’t a nice experience for anyone, the Wakefield game was awful.

“It wasn’t nice to be around that situation and we want to do our best for our supporters.

“It’s way of us re-booting everything. We’ve got to start well and give the crowd something to get excited about.”

While Widnes’ fate was decided a week ago, Hull have kept their top-eight hopes flickering with a three-match unbeaten run and Cummins admits: “They will be full of confidence.”

The Vikings will be without forward forward Weller Hauraki, who has played the last five matches on loan from Salford ahead of his anticipated move to Hull KR next year but was injured in the defeat at St Helens last Friday.

Hull KR, who have won their last three meetings with the Robins, hope to have veteran Justin Carney back from a broken hand to help offset the loss of goalkicking winger Ryan Shaw with a knee injury.

Shaw, the club’s top scorer this season with 156 points, is facing at least six weeks on the sidelines and, if he needs surgery on a lateral ligament injury, could have played his last match of the season.

Rovers coach Tim Sheens said: “There’s a chance he might be able to just rehab the injury in which case we’ll have him back during the 8s.”