Luke Robinson made a positive start to his new role as Huddersfield manager with a 22-16 win over London Broncos at a packed John Smith's Stadium, thanks to two first-half goals from Tui Lorohia.
The Broncos briefly went ahead after overturning an eight-point deficit in the first half, but the Giants pressed on in the closing stages and after Ollie Russell was fouled twice, Harry Ruston pounced to seal the win.
Mike Eccles's visitors suffered another narrow defeat after losing by a point to Leeds last week and are struggling to climb out of bottom spot in their only Super League season.
But there were positives again, with Olli Leyland's excellent strike setting up Hakim Miludi and Sadiq Adebiy for the early goals of the second half, injecting some life into a low-key game.
How Huddersfield held on to beat the Broncos
The Broncos were sharp from the start, with Adebii driving the ball in from close range and Marcus Stott slotting home from close range 15 minutes later to give his team a deserved lead.
Leyland's conversion put the Broncos six points ahead and five minutes later, had Josh Rauch converted the first of several clever kicks in a Broncos stand-off, the visitors would have taken a comfortable early lead.
Huddersfield Giants' Oliver Russell (centre) is tackled by London Broncos' Jack Campagnolo during the first half.
Instead, Huddersfield pressed on with their early momentum and struck back with two contrasting goals from Lorohi in the final 10 minutes of the first half.
There was some luck in the opener as the Giants fullback raced past his own deflected kick, but there was no doubt about the second shot as Kevin Naykama stylishly slid across the halfway line to slot home a pass to his team-mate as the whistle rang.
Tui Rolohea celebrates scoring his team's second try at the John Smith's Stadium.
Russell's three successful kicks put the home side 14-6 up at half-time, but if Robinson's men thought they had broken their opponents' resistance, they were in for a shock when Leyland staged a sensational second-half comeback.
His first attempt soon after the restart was grabbed by Miludi, and Leyland was the instigator again, his clever grubber beating everyone but Adebiy, who then countered with Leyland's kick to put London two ahead.
The Giants went ahead again thanks to two penalties on Russell, the second of which appeared to be a reaction after the Giants were controversially ejected, and just after London's Will Lovell was sent off for a high tackle, Ruston sealed the home team's hard-fought win.
Robinson 'frustrated' despite Huddersfield win
Huddersfield manager Luke Robinson: “To be honest I'm disappointed. I thought our game management was really poor and we put too much pressure on ourselves.
“The team spirit and effort was really good, they worked really hard for each other. Game management is more important. If we had used that a little bit more, I think we would have run away with that game.”
Luke Robinson has taken over as coach of Huddersfield Giants on a permanent basis after serving as caretaker manager since mid-July.
London boss Mike Eccles: “The anticipation is killing us. We got to the point where we were trying to compete and we had a tremendous run of performances for five, six, seven weeks in a row and we could have taken something from every game.
“It would be a huge downfall if we didn't win a game like that, but when you think about what we have and what we've shown in terms of Super League experience, I'm really proud that we came so close to winning a game like that.
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“We're banging the drum to start from the bottom and make a point, that would be fantastic. It would be a small win for us and we have two more chances to do that.”
What's next?
Huddersfield Giants host Warrington Wolves on Saturday (6pm), the second-last weekend of the Betfred Super League regular season. London Broncos travel to Catalans Dragons on the same day (8pm).
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