I WAS very pleased with last week’s performance against Oldham – in fact it was our best performance of the season by far.

We didn’t flit into the game for 30 minutes or so and then have a ropey period. We were pretty consistent throughout, both with the ball and without it, so it was really pleasing.

As enjoyable as it was to score so many points against tough opposition, the big zero on the scoreboard was just as satisfying. The last 80 seconds, when we were camped on our line, showed our tenacity.

Obviously, it’s a knock-out game and we knew we had it won by then and, in the fullness of time, it wouldn’t have mattered if they had scored – but the players didn’t look at it like that.

They had pride in their performance and keeping that nil on the scoreboard. That heartened me greatly. The effort and the commitment to keep it like that was tremendous.

I thought the first set of the game, when we laid down a marker with the ball, and that last 80 seconds when we defended so well epitomised what we were about on that day.

We will need to repeat that again this week if we are to achieve our aim of promotion. Workington have beaten us twice and they will be very confident they can come here and do it again.

They will feel they have a formula on how to beat us and they have, because it’s worked for them twice.

So it's up to us to work that formula out, counter it and come up with a different formula ourselves and that's what we have been doing.

We have done a lot of prep work on them and we feel as if we know their strengths, but we also know areas that we may be able to exploit as well.

There is a real buzz about the camp and that’s natural after a performance like last week's. Something like that generates an enthusiasm and an energy and it doesn’t feel like a team that’s coming to the end of a season.

It’s a bit surreal really – it’s like a team that’s a quarter of the way through the season and have found a way to play and where everyone has settled in.

Of course, we have brought people in throughout the season and that is bound to be slightly disruptive but what’s happened now is that we all look really settled, know what our roles and responsibilities are, and it’s made us into a pretty good team.

This week’s game is not do or die as there is still an opportunity for the losers to play Swinton but that is an irrelevance really.

This game gives us an opportunity to go out and end the season on a high at Odsal and that’s really important to me. I think we are very determined to nail this game and finish the season with a great performance in front of our own fans.