Richard Horne's last-second drop goal secured Hull a dramatic win over Salford to edge the Black and Whites closer to their first second-place finish in the engage Super League.

A pulsating clash appeared to be heading towards a draw before Horne's one-pointer, which followed his own failed attempt and two from Paul Cooke.

The outcome was harsh on a Salford side who fought for everything, although their failure to score outside of Shayne McMenemy's sin-binning ultimately cost them dear.

Karl Harrison's men are still in pole position to secure a spot in the play-offs though, while Hull know that a win over Catalans Dragons in two weeks' time could secure their top-two finish.

Their 16th win in 17 games was not pretty but did represent the return to fitness of top try scorer Kirk Yeaman.

The 21-year-old has missed the last eight weeks of the season and although he failed to add to his 21 tries so far, his performance was one of the more impressive on display.

Hull were dominant for almost the whole of the first half, but a crucial period just before the break saw them take a slender lead in at the interval.

Having led 8-0 through Danny Washbrook's try and two Cooke goals, they were pegged back by McMenemy's sin-binning and Simon Finnigan's try in Salford's first real attack.

Despite Motu Tony going close with a spirited close-range drive, the only real action of the opening quarter saw Cooke open the scoring with a penalty after Craig Charles' high tackle on Horne.

Hull were patient though and, after forcing two drop-outs, their reward came on the 30 minute mark when Washbrook seized on a gap in the Salford defence and from 30 metres out, arced his run to the line.

Then, with moments to the break, McMenemy was sent to the sidelines by referee Ben Thaler for a professional foul on John Wilshere after Andrew Dunneman's kick from the base of the scrum forced Nathan Blacklock into an error, and from the subsequent set of six, Finnegan crashed on to Malcolm Alker's looping pass to mark Salford's first serious attack.

Their second was not long in coming though, with Wilshere again involved, this time scoring the opening try of the second half.

The winger took advantage of an overlap and despite fullback Tony seemingly covering, Wilshere was able to scrape over in the corner. David Hodgson failed with the conversion, although Salford led for the first time at 10-8.

McMenemy returned moments after Cooke had levelled with a penalty, while Sharp replaced Blacklock with Shaun Briscoe an attempt to shore up his side's defence.

Tempers became flared as Thaler made a string of contentious decisions, while Cooke wasted a chance to calm matters by slicing a 62nd-minute penalty wide of the posts.

Yeaman's only blemish then came as he dived in ahead of Gareth Raynor in the race to ground Cooke's kick ahead, only to lose control of the ball, while at the other end Hodgson wasted a chance to put Salford ahead with a reckless forward pass when in the clear.

Tony then narrowly failed to collect Horne's deft kick ahead as the clock ran down and both sides desperately sought a clinching score, before Horne sealed matters with last-gasp heroics.