Huddersfield coach Nathan Brown says he is still re-living the nightmare of Wembley.

The former St George Illawarra boss guided the Giants to their first Wembley appearance for 47 years in his first season at the Galpharm Stadium but watched on helplessly as they suffered a 25-16 defeat by Warrington.

Almost three weeks later, Brown says the Challenge Cup final result still hurts but he is hoping to ease the pain by steering Huddersfield to a first-ever Super League play-off victory this weekend.

The Giants finished third in the table - their highest position in the summer era - thanks to a 48-16 win over Wigan in the last match of the regular season and they take on St Helens at Knowsley Road in the second qualifying play-off on Saturday night.

Huddersfield lost at Hull in their only previous play-off tie two years ago but Brown, who is favourite to be named Super League coach of the year after transforming the fortunes of the West Yorkshire club, believes their Wembley heartache can actually aid their bid for a maiden Grand Final appearance.

"Wembley was a great experience and obviously the loss was disappointing," he said.

"From a personal point of view, as long as I'm involved in rugby league while I'm alive, I'm always going to have some part of some day when I think about it.

"Nothing can change it. The thing is we've just got to make sure we take our lessons out of Wembley and take them forward with us so when we get put in the same situation again in a big game we don't make the same mistakes."

Huddersfield go into the play-offs with their 24-14 Challenge Cup semi-final win over Saints still fresh in the memory and, while they have bounced back from their Wembley defeat with consecutive League victories, Saints uncharacteristically finished the regular season with three defeats in four matches.

Having lost their grip on both the Challenge Cup and the League Leaders' Shield, Saints are in danger of finishing without silverware for the first time for six years but Brown believes they are far from a spent force.

"Of their last eight or 10 games, they've lost more than they've won, which is probably something a little bit different for them," he said.

"They've probably been moving their personnel around lately, looking at different combinations.

"We know they've got a lot of current internationals and gifted players who have been at the top of the tree for a long time.

"Regardless of how they've been going, you'd expect them to up the ante on Saturday night."

Saints expect to have England prop forward James Graham back after missing last Friday's home defeat by Catalans Dragons with a shoulder injury but full-back Paul Wellens remains doubtful with a quad injury.

"James won't want to miss this one," said coach Mick Potter. "I would imagine he would play regardless of whether it is hanging off or not.

"Paul Wellens hasn't trained with the team yet, though I'm hopeful he will be able to towards the end of the week."

Saints completed the League double over Brown's men this year and Potter believes there are lessons to be learned from their surprise semi-final defeat.

"There are a few things we can take from the semi-final in terms of analysis," he said.

"Our execution of play and the attention to detail wasn't as sharp as it has been in the past.

"In the Challenge Cup final, Warrington countered their big plays whereas we didn't. We knew what was coming and we didn't counter them as well as we should have done."