The early season form and misfortune of the West Yorkshire rivals had mirrored one another before their meeting at the OneBore Stadium.
Both had been winless, pointless and hit by injuries.
Captain Alex Mellor became the latest Tiger to be sidelined after he broke his leg in last week’s defeat at Toulouse, while Giants were without a host of injured regulars themselves, including Liam Sutcliff, Joe Greenwood and Harry Rushton because of lengthy layoffs.
France international Tanguy Zenon started for injury-hit Huddersfield just two days after joining the club, while there were Tigers debuts for Wigan loanee George Hirst and former Giants pair Jack Ashworth and Golding.
Hood gave the hosts the ideal start, darting from dummy half to grab his second try of the season after Joe Stimson was brought down close to the line.
Castleford got a deserved second through McIntosh, who scrambled through a frazzled Giants defence that had been pinned back on their line after Taane Milne gave away a reckless penalty for his high hit on Krystian Mapapalangi.
Milne was in the sin bin when Lawler crashed over under the posts for Castleford’s third try in the 26th minute, but after that it was Huddersfield who finished the half stronger with Zenon denied by a try-saving tackle from Mikaele Ravalawa before Gagai eventually responded with a 38th-minute score.
Huddersfield continued to threaten but were wasteful in search of a way back into the game before Weaver got on the end of a brilliantly weighted grubber kick from Daejarn Asi to edge Castleford 18 points ahead.
Flanagan gave Giants renewed hope when he hit back soon after, but a second from Weaver put the results beyond doubt before Golding crashed over to spark wild celebrations.
