SAINTS boss Ian Millward says his side can bounce back from last Friday's catastrophic defeat to finish in the top two this season.

They will be hoping to begin their recovery period tomorrow (Friday) when they take on Huddersfield Giants for the third time this season.

On paper it should deliver a much needed home win - Saints have twice posted big scores against the Giants already this term - but nothing will be taken for granted after last Friday night's Headingley horror show.

Saints, who were given an old school training flogging round Taylor Park by fitness coach Apollo Perelini on Monday, are likely to have the same squad available as last week with no early return for Mick Higham or Chris Joynt.

Coach Millward said: "Huddersfield are a very tough team to play against, they are very uncompromising.

"A lot of coaches talk about the spoiling tactics they bring. They have a culture there that is tough to beat, but we are at home."

Saints then play Salford and London, so that on paper should deliver three much needed wins to keep them battling for the top two finish Millward believes is still within reach.

"We can still finish in the top two. I have done the maths and I know how many games we can drop and still do that.

"But we need to turn things around. We have some good players coming back before the end of the season - Mick Higham, Paul Sculthorpe, Chris Joynt, John Stankevitch and Sean Long.

"We have to get to playing like we did that first twenty odd weeks of the season," he said.

But he is not underestimating the scale of the task in lifting his players after their run of recent poor form - culminating in their worst defeat for 95 years.

He said: "We are in this together. It is not the problem of one individual, the coach and the players are accountable.

"We have been poor in our last five games, even when we have won. I think it is an attitude thing.

"We take the plaudits when they come along, but we also have to take the criticism and it is warranted after last Friday's performance.

"We did not try or plan for that display. We thought we were ready to go, even with a few players out. We thought we had come up with a good game plan.

"But it has been a long time since we had a good completion rate and on Friday it was 27 per cent in the first half.

"When we got the ball we kept dropping it. If you are trying to build pressure, get field position and score tries it is not going to happen with such a poor completion rate.

"We have to work hard to turn that around. What disturbed me was the magnitude of the loss."