Jason Demetriou is confident his Keighley side can secure the best possible platform from which to launch their play-off assault when they entertain Whitehaven in the final match of the regular season on Sunday.

The Australian player-coach inspired a 30-12 victory at London Skolars, which leaves Cougars ahead of Workington Town on points difference only in the race to finish second in Championship One.

The runners-up gain home advantage in the second-versus-third play-off, with the winners of that going through to the Grand Final and the losers gaining a second chance in the major semi-final.

This weekend’s opponents Whitehaven are also assured of being part of the play-offs but will start from further down despite having a playing record inferior only to league leaders Swinton.

Haven have battled back strongly after suffering a nine-point deduction for entering administration at the tail-end of 2010 and have beaten Cougars twice already this summer.

So Demetriou is anticipating a tough time getting the points that would ensure home advantage right through to a hoped-for Grand Final appearance.

“We are approaching this as a play-off game,” insists former Wakefield Wildcats stalwart Demetriou at the end of his first season in charge at Cougar Park. “But also, we have beaten every team in the competition at some stage except Whitehaven, so if we beat them on Sunday, it will give a psychological boost that we can go into the play-offs knowing there’s no-one in the division we haven’t beaten.”

Haven won the opening encounter between the sides 24-10 at the Recreation Ground, then snatched a last-gasp victory in the return at Cougar Park on May 29 – when a converted Carl Sice try in the final minute grabbed an 18-14 success.

Demetriou recalls: “Last time we played them at home they beat us right on the bell and we’ve only got ourselves to blame because we probably should have put that game to bed earlier.”

Rivals for second spot Workington play host to seventh-placed Oldham at the same time on Sunday but the Keighley boss insists that he won’t have anyone monitoring the score at Derwent Park.

Demetriou continued: “We won’t worry too much about what Workington are doing. We’ve got a 23-point head-start on them and I can’t see them beating Oldham by that many. I think it will be fairly close.

“If we win and they do manage to score enough to overtake us then we will have to go to Cumbria and I’m quite prepared to do that – I’m not overly concerned.

“There’s no way that we’ll drop out of the top three now.

Demetriou has a fully fit squad to choose from, with the only probable change to the side that beat London Skolars last Friday being the inclusion of half-back Jy-Mel Coleman.

He explained: “Jy-Mel wasn't allowed to play against his old side but I’ll see how he goes in training this week as I’d certainly like to bring him back.

“I haven’t had a chance to play with him in the halves yet and I really want to know what our best side is going into the play-offs.”