Sunday 3 April 2016 19:32, UK
Paul Anderson admits Huddersfield's focus has switched from finishing in the top four to avoiding a scrap for survival after an eighth defeat of the season at injury-hit Castleford.
The Giants were only one game away from Old Trafford last year but they have endured a nightmare start to the new campaign and sit rock bottom after nine rounds.
Anderson's side looked as if they were on course for only their second win of 2016 after taking a 30-22 lead into the final 12 minutes at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle but the Tigers fought back to edge a thriller 38-34.
The result left Huddersfield 10 points off the top four but Anderson conceded he is more concerned about securing the Giants' Super League future.
Asked if Huddersfield's goal for the season had changed to trying to avoid a relegation battle in the middle eight, he said: "I would think that's pretty clear.
"Our focus has to be on dusting ourselves down and trying to make sure we win the next game.
"We know this group is capable of doing some good things. It's just a case of building energy because we're robbing ourselves of it at the moment."
Huddersfield ran in six tries against the Tigers - with Jermaine McGillvary marking his 200th career appearance with a hat-trick in addition to Leroy Cudjoe's double and Sam Rapira's powerful effort - but Anderson was left to rue poor defence.
"It's the same old story," he said. "I could sit here and repeat myself constantly.
"The positive was that we scored 30-odd points but the negative was clearly the amount they got.
"When we got to certain points of the field and executed stuff we looked alright and scored some good tries, but we let some soft ones in and our ball control isn't great at the moment."
Vital win
Castleford were missing a host of key men but fringe players impressed in their absence, with Jy Hitchcox scoring a hat-trick and fellow winger Greg Minikin also crossing.
Back-rower Mike McMeeken led from the front with a double in a man-of-the-match performance and Jake Webster went over for a vital try late on as the Tigers moved back into the top eight.
"It was a crazy game," said Castleford head coach Daryl Powell. "It was a typical third game of Easter.
"We've generally been pretty good in this period but I haven't been able to rotate like normal. We have 10 guys out and we lost Grant Millington early on, and it's made it hard for us.
"It's a massive win. I said to (assistant) Danny Orr before the game whether we'd have enough to beat them but we did, just about.
"There's a couple of clubs who've responded well to new coaches such as Wakefield and Hull KR - and the competition is real tight, so it's an important win."
