Jamie Shaul scored two tries as Hull FC secured their fifth consecutive First Utility Super League victory with a 37-20 triumph over bottom-placed Huddersfield Giants.
The full-back crossed in either half to condemn the Giants to a ninth defeat in 10 matches and leave them two points adrift of champions Leeds Rhinos, who play Salford Red Devils on Saturday.
The Giants were in contention at half-time, trailing 18-16, but paid the price when Hull scored two tries in three minutes while former FC player Danny Brough was in the sin-bin.
Josh Bowden’s sixth-minute try was cancelled out by Joe Wardle six minutes later, before the Giants went in front when Aaron Murphy went over.
Liam Watts scored on his 100th Hull FC appearance and Shaul crossed for his first following Marc Sneyd’s smart kick, only for Brough to barge his way over to narrow the gap to two points at the interval.
Danny Houghton latched onto another smart Sneyd kick in the 55th minute and, after Brough was shown a yellow card immediately afterwards, Shaul and Curtis Naughton punished the Giants, who registered a consolation try late on through Jermaine McGillvary.
Sneyd, who kicked six conversions from as many attempts, then sent over a last-second drop goal.
Paul Anderson encouraged Huddersfield to keep working hard and stick together after their season took another wrong turning.
“I thought we threw some decent stuff at them for 40 minutes,” he said. “We gifted them 18 points in that first half. After that, there are some big human beings in that Hull team, we were down to 12 and that never helped.
“It’s tough at the moment. We need to keep sticking together. It’s not about big plans or systems. It’s about effort and we need to stick together and keep doing that.
“We have to realise we have some very good rugby players in this team and it’s my job to get the best out of them.
“Hull’s physicality got us towards the end of the game – the size and presence of them got us. Being down to 12 men killed us off. It had a fair impact on the game.”
Winning is becoming a habit for Hull and their coach Lee Radford.
“The manner of the way we are playing, we have shown we can put points on the table,” he said.
“It’s a cliche, but you’ve not seen the best of us. There’s a lot of improvement there and we’re just happy to be picking up points.
“I’m over the moon with tonight. We had to work for it. It was never going to be spectacular and I’m really pleased.”