Hull established themselves firmly in fourth place in the engage Super League after a sterling second-half performance helped them overcome Wakefield at Belle Vue on Friday evening.

With the last play-off place that guarantees home advantage come the end of the season on offer for the winner, Wakefield had looked likely victors when 14 first-half points from stand-off Jamie Rooney gave them a deserved 24-16 lead at the interval.

But a superb showing from scrum-half Mathew Head - largely anonymous for the first period - spurred Peter Sharp's side into action, with early tries from Danny Tickle and Gareth Raynor setting them on their way and from there they never looked back, keeping John Kear's men scoreless for the second 40 minutes.

The Black and Whites will now go into the break for the Challenge Cup final knowing they will hold at least a two-point cushion over their fellow play-off contenders.

They started as though they meant business too, with the in-form Willie Manu collecting Jason Demetriou's knock-on to race 50 metres to the line and open the scoring in the fifth minute.

Richard Horne then saw yellow for holding Ryan Atkins. Horne was the first of four players to be sent to the sin bin by referee Phil Bentham with Wakefield duo Ricky Bibey and Adam Watene later following, the former for a similar offence, the latter for a high shot on Paul King midway through the second-half.

Rooney and Tickle traded penalties before Atkins posted Wakefield's first try after Brett Ferres created an overlap, before Craig Hall's 13th score of the season was immediately cancelled out by Demetriou's effort which came on the back of a superb offload from Olivier Elima.

Further penalties from Tickle and Rooney followed, before Rooney swung the tie firmly in the home side's favour with eight points just before the hooter.

A third penalty was succeeded by a try after Ben Jeffries carved open the Hull defence and found the supporting England international, with his conversion only underlining his side's advantage.

Kirk Yeaman nearly crowned his return from injury with a try just after the break, only for video referee Ashley Klein to decide that Rooney and not the Great Britain centre had grounded a loose ball after Rooney made a hash of collecting Head's kick.

Former St George man Head was now running the show from the centre of the field with a subtle kicking game and a superb range of passing and he played a key part in Hull reclaiming their lead.

First, Tickle highlighted his importance to the Hull cause with a close-range try and touchline goal to pull them within two of their hosts before Head sent a delightful looping pass to the touchline where Raynor gratefully collected and squeezed into a gap to score.

With Wakefield now deflated, they had a try of their own chalked off by Klein who deemed Dale Ferguson spilt possession and their anguish was confirmed when Head registered his first try in the English game

A further score from Richard Whiting confirmed Hull's sixth win from seven games, with Motu Tony's try after Yeaman and Lee Radford combined adding further gloss to an impressive display.

Tickle finished with seven goals from his nine attempts.