Huddersfield coach Nathan Brown remains determined to leave the club with silverware despite watching his side fluff another chance to return to the top of Stobart Super League.
The Giants conceded seven tries on Friday night in going down 32-12 at home to leaders Wigan, who now have a two-point advantage as well as a vastly superior points difference.
Following on from their narrow loss to Catalan Dragons, it means Brown's men have suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time this season and they could find themselves in fourth place by the end of the weekend if other results go against them.
But Brown, whose side are also through to the semi-finals of the Carnegie Challenge Cup, is adamant he can still win one of the two trophies up for grabs before he leaves to join St Helens in November.
"I said before the game if we won it wouldn't guarantee a win at Old Trafford or Wembley and losing doesn't mean we can't move forward and do well at the end of the year," he said.
Huddersfield led 6-0 thanks to winger Jermaine McGillvary's 15th-minute try and they were still in the hunt when full-back Greg Eden touched down early in the second half to make it 12-12.
But they tailed away badly and Brown had no complaints over the result.
"The opposition were too good for us," he said.
Wigan's victory would have been even more emphatic but for some wayward goalkicking.
Josh Charnley, kicking in the absence of the injured Pat Richards, missed with all four attempts before handing over to Sam Tomkins but he scored two first-half tries to take his tally for the season to 18, 11 ahead of his nearest rival.
Centre George Carmont also touched down twice as Wigan finished the stronger side after mastering the wet conditions.
A try from winger Jodie Broughton three minutes from the end enabled Salford to snatch a dramatic 20-20 draw with Bradford at the City of Salford Stadium.
The Reds trailed 20-16 until Broughton took Luke Patten's pass to go over in the corner but they were denied victory when Daniel Holdsworth missed the conversion.
Karl Pryce bagged a hat-trick of tries for the Bulls, who had Olivier Elima sin-binned and were also awarded a controversial Tom Burgess try by referee Richard Silverwood.
"To say it was offside is the biggest understatement of the year," said Salford coach Phil Veivers.
