John Kear's Midas touch deserted him as he watched his old club clinch a place at Wembley in a thrills-and-spills Carnegie Challenge Cup semi-final at Doncaster's Keepmoat Stadium.

Hull made the perfect start, racing into an 18-0 lead inside nine minutes, but were forced to withstand a tremendous fightback from Kear's Wakefield before securing a place in the final against St Helens at Wembley on August 30.

Hull were the last team to defeat Saints on their way to winning the Cup under Kear in 2005 but they will need to markedly tighten their defence if they are to be competitive against the holders, who were impressive 26-16 winners over Leeds in the first semi-final.

With both sides scoring five tries, Sunday's match was decided by the sure boot of Hull's former Wigan forward Danny Tickle, who succeeded with all six of his attempts at goal as well as scoring two tries in the first eight minutes and was fittingly named man of the match.

In contrast, former Hull scrum-half Danny Brough, the goalkicking hero of the Black and Whites' triumph over Leeds in Cardiff three years ago, managed just two successes from his six attempts and also hit the woodwork with a drop-goal effort.

The victory represents a remarkable achievement for Hull coach Richard Agar, who only succeeded Peter Sharp two months earlier and will now emulate his father Alan, a former Featherstone coach, by leading his team out at Wembley.

Kear had masterminded the biggest shock in Challenge Cup history with Sheffield Eagles' victory over Wigan in 1998 but he must have known there would be no fairytale 10 years on after his side got off to the worst possible start.

The Wildcats went into the tie on the back of four successive Super League defeats and their confidence looked distinctly fragile in the opening stages.

Hull, still lucky to be in the tournament after fielding an ineligible Jamie Thackray in the fourth and fifth rounds, were hit by the late withdrawal of full-back or winger Todd Byrne through chickenpox.

But, urged on by the majority of the 14,716 crowd, they made the sort of start dreams are made of.

Tickle was given the benefit of the doubt by video referee Ashley Klein for the first try, touching down an Adam Dykes high kick which appeared to come off his team-mate Gareth Raynor.

But there was no doubt about the next score, which came in almost identical, if less controversial, fashion and Wakefield were still in shock when stand-off Danny Washbrook bounced off the attempted tackle of Ryan Atkins to send centre Graeme Horne over for a third try.

Tickle improved all three touchdowns to make it 18-0 but Atkins began to atone for his error when he squeezed a pass out of a two-man tackle to get Australian winger Matt Petersen over for a try on his Challenge Cup debut in the Wildcats' first meaningful attack.

Fellow winger Damien Blanch grabbed a second try, from Brough's crossfield kick, but Hull still looked the likely winners when they stretched their lead to 24-10 on 26 minutes, courtesy of prop Peter Cusack's first try for the club.

But the introduction of hooker Tevita Leo-Latu, a surprise choice ahead of Jamie Rooney, injected fresh purpose and energy into the Wakefield side and he crossed for his side's third try after handling twice in the build-up.

Then Atkins profited from Raynor's failure to deal with Brough's high kick to the corner to claim a fourth try but Brough was not as accurate with his place kicking, missing the target for the third time as well as hitting the woodwork with a drop-goal attempt in first-half injury time.

Instead of being ahead, the Wildcats slipped further behind within three minutes of the restart when Washbrook won the race to Dykes' grubber kick to the line and Tickle landed his fifth goal.

Wakefield, who lost Petersen with a shoulder injury at half-time, struck back yet again when Blanch collected Brad Drew's pinpoint kick to the corner to score his second try but Brough struck an upright with his conversion attempt.

Tickle maintained his 100 per cent record with a 56th-minute penalty and Wakefield's chances finally ended when Blanch was denied a third try by the video referee for brushing the corner flag as he touched the ball down.