Former Great Britain winger David Hodgson scored his first hat-trick of tries for Huddersfield as the Giants edged a thriller to bring Castleford's winning run to an end.

The Tigers were on course to make it four Super League wins in a row for the first time for seven years when they led 12-6 but the visitors demonstrated superior finishing to nudge in front by the break.

And the Giants then defended superbly despite being reduced to 12 men through the sin-binning of Leroy Cudgoe to clinch a third away win of the season.

Huddersfield, who gave a debut to 20-year-old back row forward Larne Patrick in the absence of five regulars through injury, made a dream start with a try after just 23 seconds.

They collected the ball from their own kick-off thanks to a piece of opportunism by hooker Scott Moore and caught the Castleford defence unawares with Luke Robinson sending second rower Jamahl Lolesi through a yawning gap.

Unshaken, the Tigers attacked with confidence gained from consecutive wins against Wigan, Salford and Catalans and struck back with two tries in a four-minute spell.

A break down the left by winger Richard Owen set up the position for centre James Evans to cross on the right, courtesy of Brent Sherwin's long pass, and then prop Craig Huby took Ryan Hudson's pass from dummy half to crash over by the posts.

Kirk Dixon added both conversions to put the home side 12-6 up but Huddersfield scored a second try on 15 minutes when left winger Hodgson easily won the race to Kevin Brown's kick to the corner.

Castleford dominated the rest of the half, with Sherwin pulling the strings to telling effect, but they failed to add to their score.

Centre Michael Shenton got to the line but was turned on his back by defender Cudjoe while second rower Brett Ferres suffered the misfortune of dropping the ball over the line.

The misses began to look costly when Brown and Brett Hodgson combined to get David Hodgson over for his second try five minutes before the break.

And the ex-Halifax, Wigan and Salford winger completed his hat-trick eight minutes into the second half following superb work from Cudjoe.

Brett Hodgson's second conversion put his side 20-12 in front but they spent the next 10 minutes camped inside their own half and the pressure told when the Tigers touched down twice in four minutes.

Full-back Ryan McGoldrick got Huby over for his second try and three minutes later Ferres made up for his earlier blunder by crossing wide out to tie the scores.

Brett Hodgson then took a decisive hand to determine the outcome of the match, pulling off a last-ditch tackle to deny Owen before forcing his way over from dummy half for the Giants' fifth try.

The drama continued when Cudjoe was sin-binned for holding Rangi Chase down in the tackle and Castleford immediately made their numerical advantage pay by working the ball out wide for Ferres to score his second try.

Dixon had a chance to tie the scores but his difficult conversion attempt drifted wide.

Brown fluffed a glorious chance to wrap up Huddersfield's win when he raced 60 metres after intercepting Sione Faumuina's kick but the visitors hung on for a fortuitious victory.