CAPTAIN marvel Jack Lee is determined York City Knights reach the Championship One Grand Final at the first attempt this weekend - and not have to do it the hard way like in 2010.

Lee is one of only three survivors from the Knights side of four years ago that lost to Oldham in their qualifying play-off but still went on to reach the Grand Final, where they turned the tables on the Roughyeds with a memorable 25-4 triumph at Warrington's Halliwell Jones Stadium.

With Nathan Freer out for the season and James Haynes still a big doubt after suffering a broken rib late in the regular season, Lee could well be the only one of the trio to take to the field this time when the two clubs go face to face again in a promotion series.

And, with the Knights this time having home advantage, unlike in 2010, Lee is adamant they must progress without delay, even though they again get two chances to reach the final.

"Our aim is to reach the final at all costs at the first attempt," he said. "We will be going all out this week so we don't have to play next week and instead let those other teams fight it out."

In 2010, Oldham beat York at Huntington Stadium in the penultimate game of the regular season as they sealed second place in the table behind champions Hunslet, who were promoted automatically. The Roughyeds therefore had home advantage over the third-placed Knights in the semi-finals and won 41-32 at Whitebank. But Dave Woods' York side saw off Blackpool 38-18 in the next tie to set up the Halliwell Jones showdown.

Said Lee: "Oldham finished second and had had the upper hand over us all year, but when it came to the final everyone was up for it and we won and got promoted.

"On the day anything can happen, so we've got to be motivated and make sure we want it more than them."

The same three teams occupy the top three again this year, but this time York topped the table - without automatic promotion due to the restructuring of the leagues - with Hunslet second and Oldham third. Oldham then shocked the Hawks 25-24 in the opening play-off last weekend for the right to meet the Knights.

"I thought it would be close," said Lee of that tie. "Our goal was to make them meet each other in the first play-off and take a bit out of each other.

"With Hunslet being at home I was expecting they might edge it but Oldham must have put up a big fight. It was a close game."

Lee, of course, is joining Hunslet next season, but he stressed it was immaterial who won last week.

"It doesn't make any difference to us," he said, clearly focusing on his job at hand. "I just think we've got a home tie and that favours us, no matter who we play, and we've showed we are the best team in the league.

"We've got our strengths. We've got a good pack and we're good out wide. We've got to match Oldham's strengths and out-enthuse them. If we do that, we should come out on top.

"The table doesn't lie. We've been the most dominant team in Championship One all year. We know the play-offs are different - as we saw when we beat Oldham in 2010 - but when it's come to the crunch games we've stood up and been counted.

"We've haven't gone unbeaten of course - it's hard to do that - but when we've had to rise to the big games, the whole team has done that really well."