JORDAN Lilley aims to celebrate his new Bulls contract by steering them into the Challenge Cup semi-finals tomorrow.

The influential half-back makes his first appearance since penning a permanent deal that will keep him at Odsal until the end of the 2021 season.

Lilley has already played a pivotal part in Bradford’s progress to the last-eight showdown against Championship rivals Halifax.

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He kept his nerve with the golden-point drop goal that completed a sensational comeback to beat Featherstone in round five.

And Lilley followed up with a man-of-the-match display to stun his parent club Leeds Rhinos three weeks ago.

The Bulls are now on the brink of becoming the first non-Super League team to reach the semi-finals since 2006 – and the 22-year-old is marvelling about what could lay ahead.

Lilley said: “It took a couple of weeks for it to really sink in that we had beaten Leeds.

"Now we’re playing in a quarter-final and thinking about getting through again.

“It’s incredible to think we’re playing to be in the semi-finals – and if you get through anything can happen at that stage.

“The ultimate goal would be to go all the way and playing at Wembley would be an absolute dream.

“Bradford are writing new history – and how good would it be to get to a Wembley cup final?”

But recent results should ensure John Kear’s side keep their feet planted firmly on the ground. Three successive league defeats surrounded their Leeds glory, including a Summer Bash setback against Halifax and last week’s 42-4 thumping by Featherstone.

Lilley added: “It’s all exciting but we won’t get too carried away. We’ve got a big game coming up against a good Halifax team who’ve got some real experience in Scott Murrell, Scott Grix and QLT at the back.

“We beat them at their place and they turned us over at the Summer Bash. So it’s 1-1 at the minute between us and we know it’s going to be a tough task.

“We can’t perform like we did against Featherstone last week or it will be a horrible day.”

Lilley is confident the Bulls squad have got their Post Office Road nightmare out of their system and can put it down to an uncharacteristic blip.

“It was 10-4 with 23 minutes to go and we were right back in it,” he said.

“We didn’t play particularly well in the first half but we were only 10 points behind and still in the game.

“We came out and stuck to our game-plan and scored a try. Then from there, it just went to 42-4 – it’s very unlike us.

“We’ve had some home truths in training this week and talked about a few things which we need to improve.

“Come tomorrow’s game I’m sure we’ll be firing and that won’t happen again.”