Super League: Huddersfield Giants 30-18 Salford Red Devils - Jermaine McGillvary double seals Magic Weekend win

Only four players in Super League have bettered Chris McQueen's try tally of 12 for Huddersfield this season

Huddersfield kicked off Magic Weekend's second day by seeing off a second-half Salford fightback at St James' Park.

Toby King scored from Oliver Russell's high kick and Owen Trout went over from close range to put Giants 12-0 ahead.

Chris McQueen's 12th Super League try of the season and Jermaine McGillvary's score made it 24-6 at half-time as Deon Cross replied for Salford in between.

Salford rallied as Brodie Croft scored a super solo try and set up Sam Luckley but McGillvary's second sealed victory.

Defeat at Castleford last time out halted Huddersfield's six-game winning streak but Ian Watson's side impressively returned to victorious ways on the day the head coach signed a new long-term contract with the club.

Giants climbed to third in the table courtesy of the win over Watson's former club Salford, moving a point above Catalans Dragons, who suffered a surprise defeat by Warrington later on Sunday.

King, making only his second Giants appearance after joining on loan from Warrington, took just five minutes to open his Huddersfield account, reacting far quicker than a sleeping Salford defence to haul in Russell's sudden up-and-under and cruise to the line.

Huddersfield's second score was slightly less spectacular as Trout reached over from close in before McQueen punished more lax Red Devils' defending by grounding his own grubber kick.

Andy Ackers' last-gasp tackle forced Innes Senior' foot into touch to deny Huddersfield a fourth try and that looked like it might be a turning point as Cross darted over to get Salford on the board.

More mistakes at the back, however, handed Huddersfield a scrum from 20 metres and they moved the ball quickly to the right for McGillvary to go over unchallenged wide out.

After a slow start, the second period burst into life as Croft beat three men to sprint through for a brilliant individual score before a similar surge set up Newcastle native Luckley to go over in his hometown.

But Huddersfield re-established valuable breathing space as McGillvary again crossed wide out, moments after a forward pass denied him a similar score.

Giants pair Ash Golding and Theo Fages had late tries ruled out for offside from rebounds after one drop-goal attempt was blocked and another hit the post to keep the scoreline deservedly respectable for Salford, who remain two points off the top six in eighth.

Huddersfield head coach Ian Watson to BBC Radio Leeds:

"We were always really confident we would get the result but it was a really tough, resilient performance. We were comfortable in the first half and I felt the try they scored was against the run of play.

"Salford have a top-four squad - they've got real quality, you go through and look how many World Club Challenge winners, how many Grand Final winners, how many Challenge Cup winners they've got.

"They've got phenomenal players so that was a great result for us today."

Salford head coach Paul Rowley:

"We looked like a team that had just stepped off the bus after a three-hour journey and they looked like a team that had been having Swedish massages.

"We were slow starting and lacked energy and gave ourselves too much of a deficit. But we were beaten by a better team, who are where they are in the league because they deserve to be there.

"We were soft in defence in the first half but the character shone through in the second half and they had a dig."

Huddersfield: Lolohea; Senior, King, Cudjoe, McGillvary; Fages, Russell; Yates, McQueen, Hewitt, Trout, Levi, Greenwood.

Interchanges: Ashworth, English, Mason, Golding.

Salford: Brierley; Sio, Cross, Lafai, Williams; Croft, Sneyd; Ormondroyd, Ackers, Akauola, Livett, Watkins, Gerrard.

Interchanges: Atkin, Taylor, Luckley, Dupree.

Referee: Marcus Griffiths.

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