Hull withstood a tremendous fightback from Wakefield in the Carnegie Challenge Cup semi-final before securing the dubious privilege of a meeting with St Helens, who will start as overwhelming favourites in the final at Wembley on August 30.

The Humberside club raced into an 18-0 lead inside nine minutes at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium, but were then forced to hang on against the side coached by John Kear, the man who led Hull to Challenge Cup glory in 2005.

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

By contrast, Danny Brough, the former Hull scrum-half and 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.

The semi-final victory represents a remarkable achievement for Richard Agar, the Hull coach, 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, devoid of confidence after four successive Super League defeats, looked out of the game inside the first ten minutes. Tickle was given the benefit of the doubt by Ashley Klein, the video referee, 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 identical, if less controversial, fashion and Wakefield were still in shock when Danny Washbrook, the stand-off, 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.

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.

The Wildcats, Instead of being ahead, 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.