JOHN Kear hopes the lack of tight finishes this season won’t come back to bite the Bulls in the play-offs.

It’s all-or-nothing time tomorrow as Scott Naylor’s Oldham head for Odsal in the play-off semi-finals.

Having finished 14 points ahead of them in League One, the Bulls will be firm favourites to see off a Roughyeds side minus three players through suspension.

But Kear is braced for a tough contest between two powerful defences.

And should it go down to the wire, that will be unusual territory for a team who have racked up a series of blow-outs in their first year of third-tier rugby.

They have had only four games settled by six points or less and were beaten in three of them.

Kear said: “We’ve had the pressure for 26 rounds. We’ve been the big boys to be shot at and been got three times, twice by Workington and once by York.

“Our guys will cope with it without problem.

“But to nail tight games, you’ve got to be involved in lots of them and we haven’t been. We’ve only had four.

“We’ve scored 50-plus points in 13 games, which isn’t great preparation.

“Hopefully we’ll nail the promotion and we’ll be involved in lots more tight games next year so it can be another part of our development.

“Obviously I think we’ve had a good season results-wise.

“Somebody put it into perspective to me that we were a goal kick away from automatic promotion. I hadn’t cottoned on to that.

“If Chissy (Dane Chisholm) had kicked that goal against York, we’d have drawn – and would have gone up. That’s the fine margins we are in.”

Naylor’s comments earlier in the week that Oldham will have to play “with one hand tied behind their backs” because of the enforced absentees cut no ice with his opposite number.

“Scott’s trying the mind games, it’s all ‘woe is me’ and poor little Oldham,” added Kear.

“Good on him but we know full well it’s going to be 17 committed players wearing red and white against 17 committed players in red, amber and black.

“Whatever he says in the paper won’t make an iota of difference about how we approach it.

“They’ve got the third best defence in the league. They commit themselves week in, week out to defending well.

“They are structurally and technically very sound so it’s difficult to score points against them.

“But look at the other side of the coin, they are playing the team with the best defence in the league.”

The winners will meet either Doncaster or Workington in the final next week and Kear admits the knock-out format has got the juices flowing.

He said: “This is the most I’ve looked forward to any game all season.

“I loved the two York games, they were great to be involved in, and Warrington in the Challenge Cup. But this is up there because we know full well we’re going to be challenged.

“The consequences are great but the rewards are great as well.”