JOHN Kear wants the Bulls to deliver a statement by clipping the wings of the Sheffield Eagles tomorrow.

Kear expects his old club to be among their main rivals in the fight for a Championship play-off spot.

And he believes a first league win at their Dewsbury home would act as a timely marker in a division that is already shaping up to be the tightest yet.

Kear said: “We’ve got a team coming up in Sheffield who I think will be there or thereabouts with us.

“We’ve got to raise our standards and attempt to pick them off to put a bit of a statement down.

“We realise we are very much a work in progress.

“The best thing you can do is look at the three league games we’ve played and we’ve got a positive equity, even though we’ve lost two and won one.

“We did some things well against Oldham and others not so and we’ve got to try to eliminate those from our game.

“I’m asking the players to be composed in certain situations and I’ve got to do that with them as a group.

“You wouldn’t say there’s been a disastrous performance in any of them.”

Sheffield became the first winners by golden point last week when they edged Batley 19-18 thanks to Izaac Farrell’s drop goal in extra-time. That gave Mark Aston’s side their first league win at the fourth attempt in a start that has included top two Toulouse and Leigh.

Kear added: “I think they will be competing at the top end of the table. To go to Batley and win takes some doing and they’ve also beaten Halifax in the Challenge Cup.

“People have got to keep perspective. Look at Dewsbury, they’ve got four out of six points and with the teams they were playing you wouldn’t have thought that would be the case.

“Everybody’s bedding in at the minute and finding where they’re at. I’ve no doubt we’ll all improve at some stage, it’s just by how much.

“There won’t be anybody who’ll just lose one game, as Toronto did last year.

“But I don’t think they’ll be anyone at the bottom who will only win one game like Rochdale.

“The results will be spread much more across the 14 teams. That’s why you have to prepare the best you can for every game and pick up every possible point in any circumstance.

“There’s certainly a load of quality in this division and people have got to be respectful of the other team.

“Just because we’re wearing red, amber and black and called Bradford, doesn’t mean to say that we’re entitled to win. We’ve got to earn that right by working hard and playing well.”

Kear expects a close contest in conditions that are likely to keep points to a premium.

“The Dewsbury pitch is very heavy still and we’re up against a good defensive team,” he said.

“It is going to be tight and we’ve got to get it between our ears that it’s going to take 80 minutes of grafting to come away with anything."