JOHN Kear insists his players are not looking past tomorrow’s ‘huge’ game against Featherstone Rovers – believing his side will benefit from the eight-day turnaround following their Summer Bash exploits.

The two teams head into tomorrow’s ‘Battle For The Pitlands’ with identical records in the 2019 Betfred Championship season – boasting eight wins from 14 fixtures.

Tomorrow’s third instalment of a thrilling rivalry follows two gripping ‘one-point’ victories for Kear’s side – prevailing 17-16 and 27-26 over Ryan Carr’s Rovers this year.

Against a team he claims produced the ‘performance of the Summer Bash’, the Bradford boss acknowledges every point is crucial as the race for the play-offs hots up.

Kear said: “I thought Featherstone were exceptional at the Summer Bash, they were tough, carried the ball forward well which allowed the half backs to run around and the edges finished well.

“They will be a rival for the top five which makes it a really important game for us – they will feel they owe us one or two after the two wins at Odsal this year.

“It promises to be another close game but we feel we have a good idea about what they will throw at us, our training has been very Featherstone specific.

“We have made use of the eight-day turnaround and should produce an energetic, enthusiastic display.

“Our focus is only on Featherstone at this stage and hopefully that shows in our performance on Sunday.

“As it stands six teams are trying to fit into three play-off places, so this is a huge game for us.”

Kear also provided an injury update on long-term absentees Rhys Evans, Jy Hitchcox, Ashley Gibson and Joe Keyes.

“Jy (Hitchcox) is looking at an early to mid-July return, Rhys is late July and Ashley Gibson should be available for the 1895 Cup match at Barrow,” said Kear.

“Joe Keyes is continuing to be monitored and the injury list is getting slightly smaller but when we get one back we tend to lose one too.

“We are happy to plough on with what we have got – we feel we have a good squad, a big squad and a quality squad.”