Hull gave Richard Agar a dream start to his reign as head coach with a shock victory over a disappointing Bradford in the quarter-finals of the Carnegie Challenge Cup.

The 2005 cup winners have gained only four victories in Super League this year but they are now 80 minutes away from a trip to Wembley after ending a run of six successive defeats at Odsal.

Fortunate to still be in the competition after fielding an ineligible Jamie Thackray in both earlier rounds, Hull must feel their name is on the trophy after producing a spirited performance to stun the Bulls in front of a crowd of just 5,597 at the Grattan Stadium.

The visitors edged a forgettable first half punctuated by a flurry of penalties and yellow cards and defended heroically in the face of intense Bradford pressure in the second half.

The Bulls, led by Jamie Langley in the absence of both captain Paul Deacon and his official deputy Glenn Morrison, lacked creativity despite dominating possession and territory.

In a dour game, referee Steve Ganson awarded 13 penalties in the first 25 minutes before losing his patience and sending Ben Jeffries (Bradford) and Lee Radford (Hull) to the sin bin for persistent infringements.

Thackray became the third player to be shown the yellow card on 29 minutes when he was punished for dissent but 11-man Hull opened the scoring almost immediately when winger Matt Sing intercepted Iestyn Harris' long pass and held off the challenge of Dave Halley to touch down after an 80-metre sprint.

The teams were back to 12 apiece when Halley was sin-binned for cynically delaying a Hull restart and Hull extended their lead a minute before half-time when stand-off Danny Washbrook smashed a hole in the Bulls defence and Graeme Horne and Adam Dykes were in support to send full-back Todd Byrne over for a second try.

Danny Tickle's fourth goal made it 16-6 and Hull continued in the same vein in the second half, with half-backs Dykes and Washbrook combining with Tickle to get Sing racing in for his second try, although there was a hint of a forward pass in the move.

Bradford's fightback was launched by loose forward Sam Burgess, who squeezed a pass out of the tackle for Terry Newton to get substitute Tame Tupou over for his side's first try in the 53rd minute.

Harris added the conversion and Newton had a try disallowed by the video referee for offside as Hull were forced into desperate defence.

Their line was under almost constant siege and eventually cracked when centre Paul Sykes forced his way over for a second try but it was too little, too late for the out-of-touch home side.