Bradford Bulls 36, Hull FC 22: The Bulls' march to Grand Final glory continues onwards and upwards following a thrilling second-half performance.

Brian Noble's men went three points clear at the Super League summit with an eighth successive victory that leaves one to ponder whether anything can stop this finely-assembled side from claiming a historic double.

Of course, put that suggestion to Noble himself and he will have none of it - in public, anyway. Privately, however, he must have been purring with delight at how his troops dug themselves out of a hole and overcame Hull to record yet another vital victory.

Eight victories on the bounce is championship form and not even Noble would deny that, although as the Bulls coach has often stated - and rightly so - there are many twists and turns left to unfold.

Deprived of key players, and with scrum half Paul Deacon ruled out on Friday with a hamstring injury, Noble fielded Mike Forshaw and the returning Karl Pratt at stand off and scrum half respectively.

They performed admirably, although the latter looked rather ring-rusty - no surprise given that the former Leeds man had been out of action for nearly six weeks. Injury-hit Hull travelled to Odsal aiming to give their flagging play-off hopes a much-needed boost. Shaun McRae's side had lost their last three games but got out of the blocks the fastest as they took the lead after barely two minutes had passed.

Andy Last ducked over from dummy half inside two minutes following a Stuart Reardon spill, with communication between the young full back and Tevita Vaikona sadly lacking.

Reardon later admitted the error was on his part but with years ahead of him at the very top, Reardon will surely learn from such mistakes.

The conversion was missed by Paul Cooke and the Bulls were back level just three minutes later. Lesley Vainikolo powered his way over at the corner from acting half back to level the scores at 4-4. However, Lee Radford, playing against his former club, failed to convert the goal, as the absence of ace kicker Deacon began to hit home.

Seven minutes later, though, Jimmy Lowes' grubber ricocheted into the grateful arms of Paul Anderson from Kirk Yeaman's foot and the giant Bulls prop charged over the Hull line to send the Bulls 10-4 up. And this time Radford did convert successfully.

While the Bulls then started to gain the ascendancy, they fell asleep once again and classic wing play from Colin Best gave him his 18th try of the season, with Cooke kicking successfully to level the scores at 10-10.

The sluggish Bulls were nearly punished again in the 24th minute when Raynor dived over only for the video referee to rule it out for offside.

However, in the 26th minute, Hull's influential scrum half Horne took prop Craig Greenhill's fine offload to dive in, with Cooke again goaling to make it 16-10. Radford then put over a penalty, after Greenhill was pulled up for interference in the tackle, to narrow the deficit to four points.

Lowes then missed with a two-pointer as the absence of Deacon was again obvious.

Just six minutes into the second half, Hull extended their lead to ten points as the Bulls again took time to switch on after leaving the dressing room.

Great work from Horne and Chris Chester fed Richie Barnett, who sent wing ace Gareth Raynor in for a quality try, with Cooke again proving trustworthy with his right boot.

The awesome defending which had been the hallmark of the previous week's win at Headingley, was conspicuous by its absence as Hull began to engender thoughts of escaping down the M62 with the two points.

Enter Lee Gilmour. Enter team spirit, the awe-inspiring presence of Jamie Peacock, the steely determination and drive of Forshaw and Shontayne Hape, the return of Danny Gartner, the experience of Lowes and the class of Scott Naylor, Joe Vagana and Stuart Fielden, who again came off the bench to make a telling impact.

In the 55th minute, Gilmour took Lowes' clever pass to power in from close range but Radford again failed to convert the goal.

The Great Britain international then exploited further holes in the Hull backline to romp in from 35 yards nine minutes later, after Vainikolo's blindside burst put him clear, the conversion from Radford levelling matters at 22-all.

And a minute later, re-enter Vainikolo, as the imperious Volcano erupted to power past four defenders to cross for his second try.

It was pure theatre and joy to behold for the Odsal faithful as the pendulum of attacking momentum swung in the Bulls' favour.

They then completely destroyed Hull courtesy of some devastating attacking football. Pratt's 40-20 gave the Bulls the position for influential substitute Jamie Langley to force his way over the line on 72 minutes, and Gilmour returned the favour for Vainikolo to complete his stunning hat-trick and seal the 36-22 win late on.

The Bulls began to look simply unstoppable as they displayed the rudiments of power, skill and determination, with a masterclass of spectacular tries. Had the game gone on for ten minutes longer, you would have feared for Hull.

Surely now the Bulls have got what it takes to go all the way to Grand Final success, although as Noble would say, there could be many twists and turns left yet.

l Only a last-minute converted try from stand off Dean Ripley saved Castleford Tigers from a dry rub at Odsal as the Bulls' under-21 team romped to a 42-6 victory in their final Senior Academy fixture.

They ran in 28 points by the interval, and a total of eight tries by the end of the game.

Leading the way with another mighty effort was Aaron Smith in the Bradford pack, soundly backed by Nicky Saxton is a sharp-looking back division.