JOHN Kear is ready to turn up the title heat on York for the rest of the League One campaign.

The Bulls head into the final block of four games in the unusual position of chasing after losing top spot following last week’s home loss to Workington.

That allowed James Ford’s Knights to steal a march with a two-point lead heading into September.

But Kear is interested to see how their season-long rivals cope with the extra focus now the tables have been turned.

The Bulls coach said: “It would be nice for them to feel the pressure that we’ve had to deal with all year.

“The spotlight is on them for the first time and we’ll see how they respond.

“We’re not expecting any slip-ups or any favours from other teams.

“We’ve to look after ourselves and be as good as we possibly can be.”

While the Bulls prepare for an Odsal derby clash with Keighley on Sunday, the Knights face a testing trip to Derwent Park.

But Kear is not banking on Leon Pryce’s side to do his home-town side a favour by following up their 24-18 victory at Bradford with another big scalp.

“I’m not that hopeful of Workington beating York because I don’t think they can play to that level week in, week out,” added Kear.

“I’ve no doubt Leon will have prepared specially for Bradford and the big advantage Leon had was that he played with a number of those players last year.

“He had insider information on them. But that’s all credit to him for the job he did and all credit to Workington Town for the job they did.

“I think they really did raise their game for us and I’m not sure they can maintain that for the next game against York.

“I hope I’m proved wrong but that’s just my theory.”

There is still uncertainty over the proposed RFL restructure for the Championship and the impact it would have on the League One promotion race.

But for now, Kear is concentrating purely on banking maximum points from the remaining fixtures.

He said: “We’re planning a four-game campaign. At the end of those four, if we’re in the play-offs then we’ll address that situation.

“I think that’s the only way you can do it. We’ve got to push in these last four games and attempt to be successful in all of them.”

But Kear is not confident of seeing club captain Lee Smith featuring during the run-in.

Smith has been out since the end of June when he went off injured against Doncaster on his 250th career appearance – and his coach is not optimistic that he will be back again this season.

Kear admitted: “He’s really struggling. I’m not holding my breath at all with Lee.

“I think he’s very doubtful. He’s got his Achilles problem and we just can’t nail it.

“We’ve just got to get on with the players we’ve got available.”