Wakefield held off a late fightback from coachless 12-man Huddersfield to scrape into the engage Super League top six.

The Wildcats had benefited from a hugely controversial try after the half-time hooter had sounded and the points looked safe as Luke Robinson was sent off just before the hour.

But the Giants, in the caretaker charge of assistant coaches Paul Anderson and Kieron Purtill, rallied in the final quarter of an eventful game at Belle Vue.

Forwards John Skandalis and Darrell Griffin touched down as the visitors recovered from 28-14 down but the Wildcats managed to hold on.

The game had been fractious from the start with play stopped after just three minutes for a serious-looking injury to Danny Brough after a tackle from Kevin Brown.

Referee Steve Ganson placed the incident on report but, after a four-minute delay, ill-feeling still lingered and Danny Sculthorpe and Griffin were sin-binned for exchanging punches.

Jamie Rooney put Wakefield ahead with a penalty and the game's scrappiness was epitomised by a poor pass from Martin Aspinwall straight to Sam Obst.

Huddersfield overcame that lapse and claimed the lead when Robinson's delicate kick between the posts was touched down by Jamahl Lolesi.

Chris Thorman added the conversion and a penalty soon after afterwards but Wakefield responded immediately as a kick-off took a fortuitous bounce to fall back into their possession.

Rooney capitalised to score after a strong burst from Jason Golden and then converted his own try.

Scott Grix went close to another after Brad Drew broke from halfway but, despite a penalty prolonging the Wakefield attack, a knock-on from Sean Gleeson allowed Huddersfield to survive.

Huddersfield were penalised again before the interval and Thorman was shown the yellow card for backchat.

Rooney, who had left the field on a stretcher after his earlier injury, remarkably returned just before the interval and it was from Brough's kick Rooney gathered and sent Grix over.

Brough converted to make it 12-8 and that should have been the half-time score, but the Wildcats claimed another as the timekeeper failed to make himself heard from the back of the muffled east stand.

Ganson allowed play to go on after Brough was tackled and, two plays later, Rooney touched down to spark anger on the Giants bench.

Brough converted and Wakefield added another as the scrum-half put Kevin Henderson over early in the second.

Eorl Crabtree pulled one back but the Wildcats looked safe as Robinson was dismissed.

The half-back clearly spoke out of turn after team-mate Andy Raleigh was penalised following an altercation with Brough.

Yet the Giants responded well and, as the game into the final quarter, worked an opening for Skandalis to stroll over.

Thorman converted and did so again to reduce the deficit to two points after Griffin found a hole in the defence to crash over.

Yet the Wildcats just did enough and Scott Moore almost made the game safe when he was held up in the dying moments.