Wakefield came from 14-6 down to beat Huddersfield 35-14 in Paul Anderson's first match in charge of the Giants at the Galpharm Stadium.
Anderson was fast-tracked into the role of head coach following the sacking of Nathan Brown but he was unable to halt a run of results that has seen the Giants win just one of their last nine matches.
The former Great Britain forward had rung the changes by handing the captaincy to Luke Robinson and recalling five players after the heavy Challenge Cup defeat by Warrington, including Greg Eden who was a late inclusion after winger Aaron Murphy pulled out through injury after the warm-up.
The re-shuffle looked to have had the desired effect as Huddersfield established an eight-point lead six minutes into the second half but the Wildcats struck back to expose their opponents' fragile confidence by running in four tries in the last 18 minutes.
The Giants enjoyed all the early pressure but the Wildcats demonstrated some tough defence, led by skipper Danny Kirmond, the former Huddersfield second-rower.
It took a mistake for the home side to open the scoring, full-back Scott Grix seizing on a dropped pass by scrum-half Tim Smith just inside his own half and the supporting Luke George, one of six ex-Wakefield men in the Giants line-up, held off Ben Cockayne in a sprint to the line.
Danny Brough's conversion attempt rebounded off an upright and the visitors drew level on 24 minutes when Cockayne raced onto Smith's grubber kick on the last tackle to score his 11th try of the season.
Paul Sykes' goal edged the Wildcats in front and they went close to extending their lead with a thrilling counter-attack.
Full-back Richard Mathers released Peter Fox after collecting a kick behind his own line and the former England winger sprinted up to halfway before passing inside to Dean Collis, who was stopped by Lee Gilmour.
Wakefield held onto their lead until the last minute of the first half when they were undone by Brough's miscued kick, which found centre Leroy Cudjoe who got George over for his second try of the match and his 14th of the season.
Brough again failed with the conversion but the Giants added a third try early in the second half when replacement hooker Tommy Lee, another former Wildcat, split the visitors' defence open with a dummy and prop Eorl Crabtree was on his inside to take the final pass.
Brough's only goal of the match made it 14-6 but Wakefield got back into the game when Smith's kick bounced awkwardly for the Giants defence and Collis was on hand to claim the touchdown.
The Wildcats had a let-off when Huddersfield prop Keith Mason dropped the ball over the line and they hit the front again on 62 minutes when Brough went to intercept a pass by Sykes and gave ex-Leeds centre Lee Smith a clear run-in for his first try for the club.
Six minutes later the Giants failed to prevent a trademark offload from second-rower Ali Lauitiiti as Mathers went over for his side's fourth try and Sykes' third goal made it 22-14.
The Giants were in freefall by then and Tim Smith and Kirmond added further tries in the final 10 minutes, with Sykes taking his goal tally to five and adding a drop goal for good measure.
