Warrington Wolves were tonight counting the cost of a 32-22 victory at Huddersfield Giants that took them to the top of the Stobart Super League after losing forwards Ben Harrison and Simon Grix with knee injuries.

Harrison could miss the rest of the season with a suspected ruptured anterior cruciate ligament while Grix is expected to be sidelined for several weeks with a medial ligament injury.

“We lost two boys very early in the game which made it very tough for us,” said Wolves coach Tony Smith. “We had a lot of things to overcome.

“With Grix it looks like his medial, Harrison is more serious. It looks like he’s done his ACL. Benny’s a bit shattered in there.

“It’s a blow for both boys but that’s part and parcel of our sport.”

Warrington lost both back rowers inside the first 16 minutes and quickly found themselves 12-4 down but they edged 14-12 in front by half-time with winger Chris Riley’s second try and one from Chris Bridge before shading a hard-fought second half.

“I’m really pleased,” said Smith.

“We came up against a team who thought they could beat us and could have if we hadn’t dug in. There was a lot of bravery shown.”

Smith, a former Huddersfield coach, paid tribute to the Giants’ kicking half-back Danny Brough as well as his own captain Adrian Morley, who was playing his 400th club game.

“We were up against one of the best kicking games in the competition,” he said.

“There were some big performers, some of our senior men stepped up. It’s a fair achievement for Morley, (Lee) Briers was sensational again and (Ben) Westwood is just a machine.

“I wish I could train like him. He keeps on going.”

Huddersfield’s brave efforts were typified by prop Eorl Crabtree, who marked his 300th career appearance with a solo try and publicly expressed his disappointment at being brought off a minute from the end.

“Eorl was outstanding,” said Giants coach Nathan Brown.

“His form has been sensational. He can be really proud of what he did but there are no prizes for playing 80 minutes.”

Greg Eden, Jason Chan and Danny Brough scored other tries for Huddersfield, who missed the chance to consolidate top spot after losing for the first time.

“It one of those games that swung one way and then the other,” added Brown.

“At 26-22 we bombed a try.

“We played some good footie but the most disappointing aspect was the first 15 or 20 minutes when we probably showed our opposition too much respect.

“I’m quite happy that we’re improving. We just didn’t take our chance to hit the front at a crucial stage of the game.”