A burst of two tries in five second-half minutes from Matt Cook and Semi Tadulala proved the difference for Steve McNamara's men, who have now won their last three games since their Easter mauling at Leeds Rhinos.

Knowing that they needed to win, if only to harness the support of their increasingly dissenting fans, Hull were comfortably the better side during the opening half but were pegged back by a try from Chris Nero and went in level at the break.

From there, they were never able to dent Bradford's resolve.

They started in superb fashion, with Willie Manu making two scintillating breaks that nearly resulted in tries.

On each occasion, however, Manu's pass inside and then Kirk Yeaman's ball back to the Tongan were intercepted by Bradford, who were wearing a kit almost identical to Hull's in colour and design.

Undeterred, Hull did make the breakthrough they had threatened on 16 minutes as Shaun Berrigan chalked up his third try of the season.

The Australian hooker pounced on some static Bradford marking to dive over from close range, with Danny Tickle adding the extras.

Hull continued to boss the half, with Berrigan peerless in defence and Manu continuing to cause Bradford all sorts of problems - but their inability to make their pressure tell cost them as Nero helped level the scores two minutes shy of the break.

In what was Bradford's first serious attack, Ben Jeffries floated a lovely kick over the top where Nero was waiting to glide in and post his second try in as many games. Deacon added the conversion.

Bradford turned down match commissioner Steve Cross's request to change their kit during the interval and returned in the second half to take the lead for the first time through a Deacon penalty.

Tickle soon cancelled that out, though, with a goal of his own in the 53rd minute, just after referee Ben Thaler had ruled out a Todd Byrne try after deeming that the Hull winger went in touch as he crossed in the corner.

Paul Sykes was then guilty of wasting a golden chance to put Bradford back ahead. The centre picked up the ball after Sam Burgess had punched his way through Hull's defence, but he was unable to make the most of a clear overlap and was dragged away from the line by Yeaman.

But that was soon forgotten as two quick tries ended the contest.

First, sub Cook slithered over from dummy half and an almost improbable angle to score, before Tadulala finished off a fine last-tackle move in the corner after some neat hands from Burgess and Nero.

Hull offered nothing in the way of a comeback, and any thoughts of one were soon ended when Burgess barged over for a last-minute score.