John Wilshere went from hero to villain in Salford's engage Super League clash at the Galpharm Stadium as Huddersfield avenged defeat at The Willows last month with an easy win.

Papua New Guinea winger Wilshere split Huddersfield's defence with a brilliant kick-through for Luke Robinson to dive over unchallenged after 15 minutes.

Wilshere, who joined Salford from Leigh Centurions in the close season, converted to tie the scores at 6-6 after Brad Drew had put the home side ahead early on with the first of an impressive double.

But Wilshere blundered on 28 minutes by dropping a pass from Stuart Littler close to his own try-line, with Huddersfield substitute Eorl Crabtree collecting the loose ball and diving over.

It stretched the Giants' lead to 18-6 after Stuart Donlan had put Huddersfield back in front with a converted score on 21 minutes, and the deficit proved too big for Salford to overcome.

Drew dived over again before the break as Huddersfield's pack constantly pressured Salford into handling errors and forward passes.

The Giants, who inflicted the first defeat on Super League leaders St Helens last week, stretched their advantage further when Martin Aspinwall dived over in the right corner from Drew's fine pass.

Salford got some respite with converted tries from Aaron Moule and substitute Stephen Myler. Myler's effort was controversial as he appeared to be standing in an offside position when he collected Karl Fitzpatrick's kick-through eight minutes from time.

But the visitors' misery was completed in the closing stages when Malcolm Alker was sin-binned for starting a mass brawl.

Huddersfield's Wayne McDonald was also yellow-carded for retaliation, while centre Michael De Vere completed a perfect goal-kicking record by belting over the resulting penalty.

Huddersfield, who had lost five straight games before beating an under-strength Saints side last week, reignited their play-off hopes with this win, and it comes as a timely boost ahead of their Powergen Challenge Cup tie with York next week.

Disappointed Salford coach Karl Harrison said: "It was a poor result and we did not play well at all. We gave away too many penalties and gave the ball away too much.