THE Bulls will treat tomorrow’s League One finale as a dress-rehearsal for the play-offs.

John Kear’s side could still clinch the title – and automatic promotion – with a win over Hemel Stags and a York City Knights defeat against Whitehaven.

But they are not anticipating any final-day drama at Bootham Crescent where the Knights will seal top spot with a 15th win on the bounce.

So, Kear will be looking for the Bulls to sharpen up their act ahead for next week’s sudden death shoot-out with Oldham Roughyeds.

He said: “All we’re dealing with are the facts. Should Whitehaven win and we win, we’re champions; should York win, we finish in second place.

“We’re preparing for the worst-case scenario, the latter one, and that’s how we’ll approach tomorrow.

“It’s a game to be won and one we’re confident in winning. But we see it as prep game that we need two points from.

“I want to see a vastly-reduced error rate bringing the ball out from our own end compared with last week.”

Kear is not banking on any favours from Haven, who struggled to sneak past Coventry last week.

“I think Whitehaven are doing it very tough at the minute,” he added.

“They’ve been unsettled with rumour and speculation about the future of the club and I think it’s affected them.

“I think they’ve run their race, in all honesty.

“We’ll just get on with playing Hemel. It’s good that it’s at the same time.

“Obviously I’m sure that if there is a major shock, the news will go round Odsal and we’ll know about it. But I’m not expecting anything.”

Kear was critical of his the second-half display at Oldham last week as complacency crept in after clocking up 24 unanswered points before the break.

With a likely rematch at Odsal next week, the Bulls have been focusing on getting the inside track on the Roughyeds.

He said: “We’ve got one of our coaches who is really working very hard on looking at Oldham.

“His job has been basically to ignore Hemel and focus on Oldham while I deal with the immediate game. The good thing is it’s allowed us to start some early prep.

“Everybody can see the end-game in sight and the players are focused. They are very good in that way.

“They will have benefited greatly through this season because they are 12 months older and 12 months more experienced.”

The revamped format means that the play-off final losers will get a second bite at promotion against the bottom club of the Championship, set to be Rochdale Hornets.

But the Bulls are not looking that far ahead.

Kear said: “We aren’t even contemplating that.

“We’re simply looking at the Oldham game because if you don’t nail that one, you can get on your holidays.

“That’s the do-or-die game and we’re not looking past that.”