Warrington 26-24 Huddersfield: Wolves hold on for victory
Warrington's Super League revival continued as they claimed their third successive win after hanging on for a dramatic hard-fought victory over Huddersfield Giants.
The resurgent Wolves are unbeaten in their last four games now and moved out of the bottom two of Super League and leapfrogged the Giants as a result of the 26-24 success.
Warrington trailed 20-16 on the hour at the Halliwell Jones Stadium but two tries in three minutes from Rhys Evans and Toby King looked to have settled a tense encounter.
In a dramatic finale, Giants winger Jermaine McGillvary crossed in the corner as the hooter sounded - but Danny Brough was inches wide with his touchline conversion attempt in a bid to claim a draw.
Harvey Livett, Kurt Gidley and Daryl Clark also crossed for Warrington, with Declan Patton landing three goals.
Half-back Brough was the key figure for the Giants as he scored a try and landed four goals but it was not enough to prevent their slide down the table. McGillvary, Jake Mamo and Darnell McIntosh crossed but Huddersfield have now failed to win in eight games.
Ryan Atkins and Matty Russell both missed out for the Wolves after picking up injuries in Thursday's victory over Widnes, but they did welcome Clark and Mike Cooper back to the starting line-up.
Tom Symonds was added to Huddersfield's lengthy injury list following the defeat at home to Catalans Dragons, with Oliver Roberts taking his place in the second row and Tyler Dickinson drafted in for a bench spot.
Warrington were quickest out of the blocks and were ahead after just two minutes when, on their first attack, centre Livett scooped up a wayward Patton pass and stepped inside the Giants cover for his first Super League try.
Wolves hooker Clark was then placed on report for a late challenge on Lee Gaskell which saw the Giants half-back forced to leave the field for a short spell.
The visitors were soon level when some fine handling between Brough and Mamo allowed McIntosh to squeeze over in the corner.
In a bright opening by both sides Warrington regained the lead when Clark's midfield break was continued by Gidley and the Australian half-back returned the pass to the Wolves hooker, who shrugged off some poor attempted cover tackles to score under the posts. Patton converted.
Six minutes later the Giants were level again, this time Kruise Leeming making a fine midfield break and Mamo was in support to take the pass and score his second try in two games.
Brough landed the conversion and then added a penalty to edge the visitors in front at 12-10.
However, Warrington finished the half the stronger and when the Giants were pinged for successive penalties they took full advantage as Gidley crashed over and Patton converted.
Huddersfield did well to keep the margin at four points at the interval as Mamo came up with a fantastic try-saving tackle to deny Benjamin Jullien and Brad Dwyer saw a long-range drop goal attempt just fade wide with the last kick of the half.
Seven minutes after the restart the Giants took full advantage of a 40-20 kick by Brough which set up the position, from which the half-back grabbed a cheeky try straight from dummy half.
Brough added the conversion to edge the Giants back in front and stretched the lead to 20-16 with a penalty on the hour mark.
Two tries in three minutes looked to have settled the game as firstly Evans dived over in the corner, then King managed to collect Patton's crossfield kick to touch down.
However, in an amazing finale King then lost possession on his own line and in the last play of the game McGillvary managed to score in the corner - but Brough's touchline effort to claim a share of the spoils slipped wide.