BRANDON Pickersgill reckons the Bulls have already got to grips with playing at Dewsbury.

John Kear’s men have played their last five games at the Tetley’s Stadium – and are back there again on Sunday for the Challenge Cup tie with amateurs Underbank Rangers.

Despite losing twice to kick off the Championship, the run of matches at the club’s new temporary home to start the season has helped them quickly familiarise with the very different surroundings from Odsal.

Pickersgill said: “I’m one for routine and coming into the same changing room, knowing what you are doing and what time you’re meeting.

“Little things like that you probably take for granted when you’re playing at one place all the time.

“But I feel we are growing more towards this being our home now and settling in.

“We’ve got two losses but I think that further down the track it’s going to do us good.”

The full back’s performance was highlighted by Featherstone coach James Webster after the Bulls were beaten 30-22 last weekend.

Pickersgill admits the Bulls have had to adapt the way they play this year because of Dewsbury’s tighter dimensions but feels it is coming.

He added: “We want to make Dewsbury a tough place to come. I think we have done that in the first couple of games.

“These teams are favourites to go up and we’ve really given them a game. We’ve probably shocked London and Featherstone.

“But we’re going to have to step it up and keep improving each week.

“Playing London first on here, we knew what we needed to fix up at half-time. I think we progressed again in the Featherstone game.

“We need to change our game from last year. Odsal’s a big, wide pitch and Dewsbury’s small and narrow – and boggy at this time of the year.

“We have changed our game-plan and tightened up. We’re seeing the effects of that.

“We could easily try to play how we did at Odsal and could have ended up getting drummed.

“But hopefully it gets a bit sunnier soon and we can have a dry surface. It’s meant to be ‘summer rugby’ and it certainly isn’t that.”

The boggy conditions added to the test against last year’s beaten play-off finalists but Pickersgill was impressed by how close they managed to take it.

“The pitch cut up in the warm-up and we knew what game it would be – five drives and a kick and whoever could complete best would win. Ultimately they did it a bit better than us.

“But it showed where we are as a team. It’s very beneficial for some of the young boys coming up against the best teams in the Champ.

“It’s just down to tiny ‘one percenters’, little things here and there that we need to fix up and our reaction to errors.

“We’re very close to where we need to be. If the ball had bounced differently or we’d got on the loose balls quicker, we’d have won that game."

The Bulls now turn their attention to the Challenge Cup as they bid to emulate last season's run to the quarter-finals. Minnows Underbank, who shocked West Wales to reach the fourth round for the first time, are first up.

Pickersgill said: “We’re obviously going to be massive favourites and they’ve probably not played in front of the type of crowd we’re likely to get.

“I bet those boys are really excited but we need to make the pitch our own. We know it’s going to be boggy again and I’m looking forward to it.”