Hodgson hopes to bounce back

The Giants were runners-up for the second time in four years after going down 25-16 to Warrington at Wembley to leave themselves still waiting for their first Cup triumph since 1953. Nathan Brown's men are still handily placed in the top four with two games left of the regular Super League season, beginning at Celtic Crusaders.

"It's going to be hard," said Hodgson. "It's something I'm not used to. We think we've done enough to secure ourselves a place in the top four at the moment and it's important now we bounce back. We've got another couple of big games and it's important we get some momentum building into the finals."

Huddersfield were highly fancied to end their 56-year wait to get their hands on rugby league's blue-riband trophy after enjoying the better preparation but several of their key players produced their worst performances of the year.

Hodgson led from the front, scoring one try and setting up another for Shaun Lunt, but the Giants paid the price for a nervous start in which they conceded three tries in the opening 15 minutes.

They were on the end of some dubious decision-making with referee Steve Ganson missing a knock-on in the build-up to Warrington's opening try and video official Phil Bentham disallowing first-half scores by Lunt and David Hodgson.

They also suffered a crucial blow with the loss of stand-off Kevin Brown half an hour into the match but the captain refused to look for excuses.

"When certain things like that happen at the start of the contest, you think that maybe luck is not on your side," he said.

"Losing Kevin was a blow because he's had a really good season for us. It disrupted us a little but that's no excuse. We weren't good enough on the day. We lacked cohesion and the patience to build a game.

"They definitely outplayed us. It's shattering. You sometimes prefer to lose games at the start of the competition rather than the big one."