Leigh coach Adrian Lam declared himself proud of his side after they won 16-10 to condemn Huddersfield to a fifth straight defeat.
The result marked only a fourth Super League win of 2024 for the Leopards and they were forced to do it the hard way after having three players sin-binned.
Ed Chamberlain and Frankie Halton were shown yellow cards towards the end of the first half before Brad Dwyer followed suit in the closing stages of the game.
But the visitors took the spoils with first-half tries from winger Josh Charnley and hooker Edwin Ipape, plus eight points with the boot from man of the match Matt Moylan.
Ian Watson’s hosts scored second-half tries through second-rower Sam Hewitt and centre Kevin Naiqama but Leigh held on.
Lam, who expressed his frustration the performance of the officials, said: “I think I’ve aged a few years tonight.
“But I’m very proud of the boys because there was a point in the first half when we went down to 11 players.
“It’s a difficult enough game to play with 13 players, let alone 12 or 11, and I thought there were some really tough calls, especially the sinbinning for Chamberlain.
“I was a bit frustrated with a lot of the decisions and the stoppages but I don’t want to take away from the what the boys did and the way we hung in together as a group.
“We weren’t pretty at times, but you saw our desperation for each other.”
Lam reserved special praise for stand-off Moylan, adding: “Matt has finding his rhythm in that position and long may it continue.”
Charnley opened the scoring and Huddersfield had Oliver Russell sinbinned before Leigh scored their second try when Ipape scampered over.
The Giants hit back early in the second half through Hewitt and Naiqama went over late on but Leigh held on.
Huddersfield boss Watson, who revealed Jake Connor missed out due to a knee problem, said: “There was a lot of effort and desire from both sides and the fact there was only two tries apiece showed that.
“They probably had a player in Matt Moylan who was very smart in what he was doing on the back of Lachlan Lam.
“We gave too many penalties away in the first half and maybe we could have been a bit smarter with some opportunities.
“There are small little moments we need to learn from, including discipline, but if we have that effort, we’ll be alright. We just need to be a bit more clinical and disciplined.”
