Obviously, there is a tidal wave of positivity sweeping through Hull FC after Saturday’s heroic comeback victory over Wigan Warriors at The Brick Community Stadium, and absolutely rightly so.

However, as a rugby league journalist and a supporter for nearly half a century, I’m obviously a bit more pragmatic than many, although one Wigan fan recently said to me that he thinks the team could surprise me, so yes, hope springs eternal.

What the Airlie Birds achieved on Saturday was nothing less than spectacular, I guarantee there won’t be many teams who come back from a 16-point half time deficit to win there, and had absolutely all the hallmarks of another classic Challenge Cup tie between these two famous clubs, of which there have been many, with Wembley in 1985 being the most famous.

But now the euphoria has settled down, here’s the reality. The Black & Whites are still unlikely to lift the most famous trophy in World Rugby League at Wembley in June, despite having knocked out the best team in the world and current holders of that magical trophy.

They are also still, just about, unlikely to make it into the playoffs at the end of the season, let alone bring home the big prize of the Betfred Super League trophy, which I still believe will end up extending its residency at Wigan, but there is an obvious caveat to place here which is that they are only unlikely to achieve these things, what cannot be said anymore is that they definitely won’t achieve them.

At the start of this season, I predicted that the Black & Whites would not make the playoffs. I genuinely believed that they would struggle mostly and had to target certain games and set some records straight and most Hull fans probably would still settle for what I predicted with a 7^th to 9^th place finish.

I thought they needed to target certain games and I still believe that now, but as more of a stepping stone than anything. I reckon they need to target victories certainly in their next two games against Wakefield Trinity and Castleford Tigers and I’m now leaning towards them targeting another victory on the road at Warrington in the week prior as well, although Sam Burgess’ side could improve in the next few weeks to put that game back in the ‘unlikely to get a win’ category at this point, for now a targeted win there is definitely part of the conversation for me.

What Hull have done well so far is grab wins against those sides that I still think will be somewhere around them at the business end of the season by winning at Catalans Dragons and Huddersfield Giants and currently to make me believe they can maybe scrape into the playoffs, they need to continue like that.

Those targeted games comprise games against the likes of those who Hull have already beaten, plus newly-promoted Wakefield, wooden spoon favourites Castleford and the likes of Leeds Rhinos and now include crisis club Salford Red Devils and could, considering current form, stretch to Warrington as things stand.

Hull do still have home and away games against Le Dracs, they face the Giants at Magic Weekend and have a home fixture with them.

They also have home and away games against the Trin and Danny McGuire’s Tigers, while their trip to Warrington is the first of two to the Halliwell Jones Stadium, before also facing them at the MKM Stadium.

Looking at those ‘targeted’ games and potentially targeted games against the Wolves could yield anything up to 22 league points, before taking into account the possibilities of what might happen against Salford and Leeds.

At the start of this season, you would look at those and think Hull would do well to gain maybe 8-12 points from those games to keep them away from the foot of the table, quite comfortable and definitely an improvement on last season, but if we are to include them in the playoffs conversation, one would say they probably have to take 14 or 16+ points from them, and that is now seemingly possible after their first ever Challenge Cup victory at Wigan, such is the size of what they did.

Looking at other games, such as against both of last season’s Grand Finalists, you would still say that the Black & Whites are unlikely to get anything out of them, however you would certainly say they are capable of ruffling those feathers and looking at the games against St. Helens and Leigh, both of which are to be faced home and away you would suggest a possibility of anything between 0 to 2 wins is most likely.

Home and away games against Leeds and Salford must also be targeted games if Hull are serious about getting into the playoffs.

At the moment, you would say it’s not impossible because this is being written on the Monday morning after that dramatic victory at Wigan on Saturday evening and of course that means we also have to add the distraction of certainly a Challenge Cup quarter-final and therefore, potentially a semi-final and possibly a trip to Wembley, that is all on the table at this moment in time.

So, the question for Hull FC fans must be, which do you think your team should prioritise, or could they realistically aim for both, having shown what they are capable of thus far? I know what my answer is to that question!

Written by Ian Judson (site contributor & Hull FC fan)