The Hull Daily Mail devoted almost the entire paper on Monday to celebrate Hull’s dramatic, against-the-odds triumph against Leeds in the rugby league Challenge Cup Final.

The club won through in what has been hailed as the best Challenge Cup Final in the history of the game.

The paper carried a total of 31 pages, with all the action and atmosphere from Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium as well as the team’s triumphant open-top bus tour on their return to the city.

The Mail’s Challenge Cup Final Souvenir Edition carried a wraparound cover with the Hull heroes parading the trophy. Early indications are sales increased by up to 10,000 on a usual August bank holiday figure.

The next day the paper followed up with a further 28 pages, including a 16-page picture special focusing on the fans’ big day and the celebrations that followed Hull’s epic 25-24 victory, which was watched by an estimated 30,000 supporters from the city.

The paper was also first in print with the triumph on the day, carrying five pages on the last-gasp victory in the Saturday afternoon Sportsmail sports edition (below), which went to press within 45 minutes of the end of the game.

Editor John Meehan said: “Hull are one of the biggest clubs in rugby league, but this was their first silverware in 20 years.

“We felt it was important to reflect not just the triumph, but how it was achieved and what it meant for the club’s fans and the city of Hull.

“Hull’s sports teams are on the up and so is the city as a whole. There’s a real buzz about the place.”

Sports editor Stuart Rowson said: “I’m sure our readers will have devoured every word and picture but none of them will have seen the extra man hours that went into producing so many cracking pages during the height of the holiday period.

“It was a tribute not only to the team’s journalistic skills but also their willingness to pull out all the stops to capture an extraordinary sporting success.”

The Cardiff victory is the latest in a series of sporting achievements for the city of Hull. Hull City football club have recorded two successive promotions and Hull Kingston Rovers, the city’s other professional rugby league club, have won the Northern Rail Cup and are aiming for promotion to join Hull FC in the Super League.

The Challenge Cup victory also capped a great week for the city, coming just two days after much-improved GCSE results lifted Hull off the bottom of the national league table.