Hull trample Bulls

Tickle: Try and five goals

Hull bought some much-needed breathing space with a 34-24 victory over Bradford at the KC Stadium on Friday.

After a run of two wins from eight it was thought that another defeat would bring coach Richard Agar's three-year tenure to an end.

That looked like a distinct possibility after his side trailed 12-0 early on, but the hosts rallied to clinch a much-needed win thanks largely to a try and five goals from Danny Tickle.

Missing Sean Long through suspension as a legacy of the Castleford defeat, Hull looked to attack from the off and Willie Manu's first-minute break nearly sent Tom Briscoe clear.

The Bulls had obviously done their homework on Hull's notoriously poor edge defence, though, and took the lead after four minutes after exploiting their opponent's weakness.

Momentum

A short pass from Brett Kearney sent Chev Walker racing into a gap and, after drawing the full-back in, he sent Paul Sykes over the line, with Patrick Ah Van then converting.

Sykes, floating between the full-back and stand-off position, then saw Hull winger Will Sharp had gone missing and chipped into his channel.

Ah Van collected and kicked ahead for the supporting Shad Royston to cash in, while the former again added the extras.

Kirk Yeaman opened Hull's account when he crashed onto Manu's offload to get his side moving with his sixth try of the season.

The score gave Hull some momentum and Tickle soon cashed in, taking three tacklers over with him after collecting from Sam Obst, before kicking his second touchline conversion.

Bradford were quickly back ahead seven minutes before the break as Walker went in following Marc Herbert's flick-reverse pass.

Sin-binned

But Hull were soon back in it as Lee Radford gave a show-and-go before diving over and Tickle again converted from the touchline.

Five minutes after the restart, Jordan Turner exposed Bradford's edge defence when he went in to give the home side the lead.

Bradford's Ian Sibbit was sin-binned for a grapple tackle but when Sharp lost concentration Royston nipped in and touch down to level the scores once more.

Herbert missed a drop goal from right in front of the posts as the clock ticked down, and he was made to pay with 11 minutes left when Briscoe went over in the corner off Yeaman's pass.

Tickle kicked the goal from wide out again, but then blotted his copybook slightly with two minutes left, after Briscoe went in for a second try that slightly flattered Hull.