Hull registered a third straight win for the first time this year as they out-played Huddersfield at the KC Stadium with a performance to suggest their early season troubles may be over.

Peter Sharp's side have languished near the foot of the engage Super League for most of the campaign due to a number of injuries and sub-standard performances, but inspired by their scrum-half Adam Dykes they were able to move to within touching distance of the top six.

Australian Dykes - playing his first league match for five weeks after an illness - was the linchpin for the Black and Whites, creating all four of their tries, two of which were scored by Todd Byrne.

Huddersfield, who have now gone four without a win in the league, never looked likely to win the match despite the closing deficit and travel to Cardiff for the Millennium Magic event in 11th place.

Despite a solid opening from both sides, Hull always looked the most threatening and went ahead with a 10th-minute penalty from Danny Tickle, who went on to bring up a century of points for the season.

It took until the 20th minute for either side to post a serious attack though and with it came the first try, Byrne notching his third of the season after a delightful pass from Dykes had sent Kirk Yeaman racing clear.

Hull's direct running was now starting to puncture the Huddersfield defence more easily and it was not long before Dykes was laying on two more tries.

Craig Hall was the first recipient, touching down in the corner after Dykes created a gap for himself and looped a neat ball out to the wing, before Danny Washbrook took in another pass from the former Cronulla man to brush off three tackles and score.

With captain Chris Thorman left out by Jon Sharp, Huddersfield found any direction in attack quite hard to come by but did manage to score before the break, with Luke Robinson's 10th try of the season and two goals from youngster Tom Hemingway bringing them back to 18-8.

After going into the interval buoyed by that flurry of points the visitors started the second period well and Rod Jensen thought he had scored in the corner, only to see play brought back for a forward pass from Leroy Cudjoe.

Cudjoe had a notable game at full-back but was unable to sweep across and stop Tickle adding a fourth Hull try with 46 minutes gone after Tommy Lee had burst his way through the Huddersfield line.

The Giants did hit back with a solo effort from Steve Snitch, who bullied his way over from close range, only for Dykes to again redress the balance with a wonderful short pass that provided Byrne with a brace of tries.

Byrne - one of only two players to start every game for Hull in 2008 - last scored in his side's previous home win against Wakefield in March when he also scored twice.

With the clock now against them, Huddersfield did promote thoughts of a comeback when Paul Whatuira poached his sixth try of the season after Yeaman failed to deal with Robinson's kick through but despite Hemingway converting from the touchline they left themselves with too much to do.