THE wheels well and truly fell off the wagon at Huddersfield on Sunday.

Wolves were an absolute shambles from the third minute to the finish on a day when they could have given fading top-eight hopes a shot in the arm.

First came the handling mistakes, then the penalties, then the softly conceded tries - and plenty of them too!

They did not seem to be able to do anything right.

Embarrassingly, it was a worse showing than the previous two heavy losses but at least the opponents on those two occasions, Leeds and Salford, were in top-four form.

It is a mark of this side’s current degeneration that 14-0 at half time was already game over against a team sat one place below them, but some shocking defensive moments inconceivably got worse in the second period.

Wire defenders were consistently pulled out of position, especially on the left-hand side where Tom Lineham, Ryan Atkins, Dec Patton, Benjamin Jullien and Andre Savelio were unable to prevent Danny Brough, Leroy Cudjoe and Jermaine McGillvary enjoying a field day.

The two tries that Giants did not score on that flank were created there from the damage of the previous tackle.

Tony Smith brought in Kevin Penny for his first Super League game of the year after injury, playing him at full-back so that Stefan Ratchford could attempt to fix the issues at right centre in the absence of Rhys Evans, Toby King and Harvey Livett.

As the game progressed it was clearly too much of an ask of ring-rusty Penny in a team suffering from a crisis in confidence and key missing personnel in the shape of Kurt Gidley, Daryl Clark and Ben Westwood.

From the extra bounce and enthusiasm in Huddersfield’s play you could tell they had benefitted from a nine-day turnaround in comparison to The Wire playing their third game in 10-days and looking way off the pace.

It was not in the script at the start of the year, on the back of last season’s League Leaders’ Shield and two finals appearances, but dark clouds are forming more quickly and thickly over The Halliwell Jones Stadium with each game that passes.

Wolves have hit rock bottom and even the most ardent of optimistic fans are wondering who can fix this mess?

INTERESTING NOTES:

Wolves’ sequence without a win stretches to four matches.

Most points conceded in a match by Wire this season.

Total conceded in three matches stretches to 122 points, with only 16 scored.

Wolves slip from ninth to 10th spot, with six rounds to go until the split into the 8s.

Kevin Penny’s first appearance of the season.

Top try scorer Tom Lineham extends his tally to 12 in 17 outings.

MATCH FACTS

Super League Round 17, Sunday, June 4, 2017

Huddersfield Giants…44 Warrington Wolves 4

Giants: Jake Mamo; Jermaine McGilvary, Leroy Cudjoe, Jordan Turner, Aaron Murphy; Danny Brough, Lee Gaskell; Sebastine Ikahihifo, Kruise Leeming, Sam Rapira, Oliver Roberts, Dale Ferguson, Ryan Hinchcliffe. Subs: Shannon Wakeman, Paul Clough, Adam O'Brien, Nathan Mason.

Wolves: Kevin Penny; Matty Russell, Stefan Ratchford, Ryan Atkins, Tom Lineham; Kevin Brown, Dec Patton; Chris Hill, Brad Dwyer, Mike Cooper, Benjamin Jullien, Jack Hughes, Joe Westerman. Subs: Ashton Sims, Andre Savelio, Joe Philbin, Morgan Smith.

Scoring: Roberts try, 5mins, Brough goal, 6-0; McGillvary try, 32mins, 10-0; Murphy try, 37mins, 14-0; Clough try, 44mins, Brough goal, 20-0; Turner try, 48mins, Brough goal, 26-0; Lineham try, 53mins, 26-4; Mamo try, 58mins, Brough goal, 32-4; McGillvary try, 63mins, Brough goal, 38-4; Murphy try, 75mins, Brough goal, 44-4.

Penalties: Giants 8 Wolves 8

Referee: Chris Kendall

Attendance: 5,362

Man of the match (Guardian view): Mike Cooper