Huddersfield chief Rick Stone admitted his side will learn lessons in how to compete with the top teams after defeat to Castleford.
The Giants battled hard to establish a 12-6 half-time lead, but let it slip away in the second-half.
Stone claimed his side must manage games better in those situations to go to the next level.
“I’m a bit disappointed for the boys rather than with them,” he said.
“We didn’t manage the second-half as well as we could.
“We let in a couple of soft tries and mismanaged the game a little bit. Against the better teams you’ve got to play up to your potential and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Defeat all but ended their hopes of reaching the top eight, although Stone expressed his pride with his squad for staying in the play-off hunt for so long.
“I think we’ve been pretty competitive for a couple of months now,” he said.
“We’ve been up (against it) for a long time really, first of all to make the eight and then to give ourselves a chance to win a few games to make the four.
“It’s hard to keep playing your best every week and I’m a bit disappointed for the boys as they’ve worked very hard to get into this position.”
