WOLVES boss Tony Smith praised the spirit of his side after their thrilling 34-30 win over Huddersfield Giants this afternoon.

Tries from Stefan Ratchford, Ben Currie, Ben Westwood, Chris Sandow, Ryan Atkins and a late Daryl Clark score ensured a tight victory and second place in Super League going into the Super 8s.

Former Wire winger Gene Ormsby scored a hat-trick for the visitors, for whom Aaron Murphy, Nathan Mason and Craig Huby also crossed.

After the game, Smith said there were definitely areas his side needed urgent improvement on going into next week’s Challenge Cup semi-final against Wakefield.

“Some of our attack was fantastic and we scored some fantastic tries,” he said.

“Our spirit and fight to the end was very pleasing but we would like to have a more rounded performance.

“We put pressure on ourselves and it gifted our opponents to put too many points on the board for our liking.

“We'll fix some of those areas up for next week. We need to be better than that next week but there was some brilliant passages of play.”

Despite currently sitting bottom of the Super League table, Rick Stone’s Giants put in an impressive display at The Halliwell Jones Stadium and led until Clark’s 76th-minute score.

Smith said the game was a superb advert for the 13-man code.

“It summed up some of the season, if you came to be entertained I'm sure you were,” he said.

“It was a terrific game, lots of action and suspense and finally some joy for us.

“There was some aspects of it for the coaches that was a bit frustrating with some of the errors made.

“I thought we invited Huddersfield into the game when we had control of it, especially at eight points up.

“They are not a bottom of the table team. If you look at them throughout the season they've been in most games.”