JOHN Kear has a simple message for his Bulls in their final-month pursuit of leaders York: Don’t panic.

After the blank weekend, preparations step up again for the derby clash with Keighley at Odsal on Sunday.

With four games to play, Bradford need to win them all and hope for a Knights slip-up elsewhere.

The long wait since their costly home defeat against Workington has given the Bulls plenty of time to chew on losing the League One top spot going into the season climax.

Kear said: “Realistically, if we compare it to a tennis match it’s the fifth set at Wimbledon and they’ve got a break of serve.

“That’s basically how it is. But it’s not to say the serve can’t be broken back.

“If we have to go the play-off route, there’s no reason why we can’t be successful that way.

“But we look at ourselves and have to be the best we can be in order to put the pressure on York.”

The potential RFL revamp to extend the Championship to 14 teams for next year, which could be ratified as early as the end of this week, would mean the top two are virtually up anyway.

But that will not come into Kear’s thinking as he looks for his side to right the wrongs of last week when they tackle the Cougars.

Kear added: “When you lose like that, you want to get back on the horse and prove that you’re better than when we last showed.

“But having the free weekend has allowed us to have a real in-depth review as to the whys and wherefores.

“The players would probably have felt they’d have liked to be straight back out there.

“But it has allowed a greater depth of review to make sure team selection and tactics are exactly right for the last four games.

“I would suggest the Workington Town half-backs managed the game far better than ours. That was a disappointment.

“We just looked frantic and panicked when we got behind. That’s something we’ve got to look at.”