Francis Cummins heaped praise on his victorious players after the Bulls reignited their play-off hopes in dramatic fashion last night.

The 19-12 win over Hull FC lifted Cummins’ side to within two points of Peter Gentle’s eighth-placed team with five matches remaining.

Luke Gale’s 75th-minute drop goal edged the Bulls in front and Matt Diskin crashed over the line late on to end a miserable run of six straight Super League defeats.

Asked about his side’s hopes of making the play-offs for the first time since 2008, Cummins said: “It’s always been on but we’ve just got to keep on improving.

“People start to write you off but we’ve been quietly confident. We’ll just keep going and there’s a lot more to come if people are willing to keep showing that same steel.”

The defensive resilience of the Bulls was to be applauded as they restricted Tetley’s Challenge Cup semi-finalists Hull to just two tries.

Tom Briscoe opened the scoring and Danny Tickle squeezed over in the second half but the home side were worthy winners after first-half tries from the returning Jarrod Sammut and in-form Elliot Kear laid the platform.

The Bulls lost John Bateman to an ankle injury in the opening 40 minutes and Tom Olbison was forced off in the second half after aggravating the knee injury which has recently sidelined him.

Cummins, who singled out props Ben Evans, Manase Manuokafoa and Nick Scruton for special praise, said: “The players have shown a lot of heart and character – but they have all year.

“We lost John Bateman in the first half and then we lost Tom Olbison in the second. It showed that it wasn’t going to be pretty but we got the job done.

“When you have a bad run, you probably try and get a bit too safe. But we defended well and it’s good to come out with the win.”

The Bulls are not in action again until they head to Wakefield in a fortnight’s time but, with three of their remaining five games at home, there is still hope they can claim a top-eight finish.