ANOTHER week, another embarrassing performance – this time losing 48-20 to a side currently second from bottom.

True, the return of early season casualties mean Huddersfield are a much better team than their league position suggests, but the scale of this defeat does not augur well for the next three weeks when Keiron Cunningham’s men take on the top three.

Although there was the odd flash, mostly towards the end when the game was lost and a couple of late tries almost put what would have admittedly been a very thin veneer of respectability on the scoreline, those glimpses were too few and far between for a club of Saints’ standards.

The fans, who had shelled out for the long trip, let their feelings be known at the end with cries of players being “not fit to wear the shirt” when the team went to the section of support.

This performance will be filed in the list of Magic shockers, including the one that prompted then skipper Paul Wellens to read the riot act back in the title winning year of 2014.

Will strong words and leadership be enough to salvage something from this campaign and stop this pattern of all too frequent humiliating performances?

Berating the individuals – whether players or coaches – is one thing, but we have to face facts now that year on year clubs now overtaking Saints have recruited smarter and better and that is now regularly showing on the scoreboard and ultimately the league table.

Huddersfield this week, Hull next week, and Catalans and Warrington in the subsequent two matches will all see Saints up against teams boasting line ups considerably stronger across the board than them and it is an area that will urgently need addressing for next term.

This competition gives no divine rights to maintain old orders based on history or reputation.

But in the here and now, should we be getting more out of this crop, admittedly missing their sharpest attacking tools in Messrs Lomax, Percival and Makinson?

It started reasonably enough, with the opening quarter seeing both sides go for steady sets, looking for the mistake.

Luke Walsh’s inventive grubber and enthusiastic chase forced a drop out, but from there Lama Tasi went close but then Matty Dawson’s pass found the touch rather than Adam Swift.

A few sets later a set piece move almost sent Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook over the line, but that set ended with Walsh’s kick wide coming to nought.

Huddersfield would soon show themselves to be far more clinical with their chances on the line – and after full back Shannon McDonnell had stopped a Giants break, the ball was fanned right where Jermaine McGillvary finished off.

It was the first of three tries in nine minutes, with the second being an absolute sickener.

After Jack Owens had defused Brough’s dangerous bomb, young debutant Calvin Wellington dropped the ball on the next carry to allow Ukuma Ta'ai to scoop up for an easy score.

And then moments later former Saints scrum-half Jamie Ellis collected Aaron Murphy's pass and, aided by Brough’s smart shielding from James Roby’s cover attempt, scored in the corner to make it 16-0.

Saints got a stroke of luck to get a toe-hold when Theo Fages scruffy grubber gave them a repeat set from where and nice sequence of passes saw Roby, Jon Wilkin, Fages and Swift combine to set up Matty Dawson.

Walsh cut the half time deficit to 10-points, but Giants re-asserted themselves with two tries within 10 minutes of the second half commencing.

McGillvary, who set up the set with a good strong first carry, ended up finishing it off a few tackles later when after the referee had missed a blatant Brough forward pass, the wing took Leroy Cudjoe's pass and grab his second of the afternoon.

Forward pass aside, Saints were woeful in clamping the ball, allowing Giants to offload at will to create the space for McGillvary to polish off.

More alarming was the manner in which prop Sam Rapira went through a gap wide enough for a bus to pass through from 10 metres out after debutant Ikahihifo had halted short of the line.

Brough was making an even more punishing afternoon by slotting the extras, and in loose play his deep raking kicks constantly made Saints play from deep in their own half.

Teams make their own luck, but Huddersfield’s sixth try on 54 minutes was jammier than a Hartley’s production line when centre Jake Connor put boot leather to a low pass from Brough only for it to skim into the air, allowing him to regather and pop it wide for Murphy to cross in the corner.

Brough’s conversion wrapped up the game as a contest at 34-6 but then Saints began to play with a bit more expression.

Roby sparked it from dummy half, before Jordan Turner, on for Wellington, put winger Owens away in the corner for a well-taken score.

And when Walsh’s kick was fumbled by rusty full back Scott Grix, Wilkin hoovered up to send Fages in.

A Brough penalty, after a high shot from McCarthy-Scarsbrook, took the wind out of Saints’ sails temporarily.

But another fine handling move saw Swift touch down in the corner before Hinchcliffe and half-back Kyle Wood made sure that Giants’ ascendancy was reflected on the scoreboard with Brough making it eight from nine goal attempts.

Saints: McDonnell; Owens, Wellington, Dawson, Swift; Fages, Walsh; Tasi, Roby, Amor, Wilkin, Vea, McCarthy-Scarsbrook. Subs: Turner, Walmsley, Savelio, Knowles.

Huddersfield:Grix; McGillvary, Cudjoe, Connor, Murphy; Brought, Ellis; Crabtree, Hinchcliffe, Mason, Wardle, Taai, Lawrence. Subs: Wood, Rapira, Roberts, Ikahihifo.