Giants coach Nathan Brown is confident heading into the play-offs
Huddersfield Giants thrashed Salford City Reds 52-4 in a one-sided Super League fixture at the Galpharm Stadium.
Danny Brough opened the scoring with a solo effort ahead of Stephen Wild and David Fa'alogo's first-half tries.
The Giants sealed the win with three tries in eight minutes after the break as David Faiumu, Kevin Brown and Larne Patrick all scored converted tries.
Faiumu's second, Lee Gilmour and Graeme Horne brought up the 50 points before Jodie Broughton got a Reds consolation.
It was another game to forget for the Reds and their supporters following on from the recent heavy defeats by Hull KR and Crusaders.
The Super League strugglers spent long stretches of the game pinned in their own half and they had a second-half consolation try by Matty Smith disallowed for a forward pass.
A ray of hope for Salford was the try-scoring performance of Giants loose forward Wild who is set to join the Reds on a three-year deal from next season.
Huddersfield coach Nathan Brown: "We're definitely looking in better shape than we were this time last year. I feel fifth place could be ours as long as we go to Catalans and play well.
"There's no reason why we can't. The team has been doing well over the last eight weeks or so despite missing at least two or three of our big blokes in every match.
"Overall I felt our performance was pretty good. Salford made us work pretty hard. I thought our execution in the first half let us down but we did better after the break."
Salford coach Shaun McRae: "Huddersfield work hard, attack and have X-factor players who can come up with the unexpected.
"If they are fully fit then I think there's a good chance of them being the team that gets out of the bottom half of the play-offs to reach Old Trafford.
"Clearly we had players missing. That's not an excuse, it's just a fact. We had eight players out who would normally start.
"What happened today is we were simply outclassed. You might be able to criticise some of the players for their execution of not being able to handle an occasion like this but it's not their fault.
"They are young lads who came up against a nearly fully fit opposition playing their last home game with an attachment to some players who may be leaving and fifth place to play for."
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