JOHN KEAR will keep telling his pace-setting Bradford Bulls side that their job is far from done - with York City Knights and a stack of other clubs still in the title race.

After a free weekend, the Betfred League One leaders sit two points clear of the Knights and Kear is happy with their efforts so far, losing just once of their 11 games.

But the experienced coach knows there remains a lot of hurdles to clear to achieve the instant return to the Championship that the fallen giants are demanding, saying their are "challenges all over the place".

Kear said: “The application of the players has been tremendous. It’s been a really enjoyable season up to now.

“We continue to work hard and I’m certain we will keep doing so. They are reaping the rewards for all the hard work they are putting in.

“They have been respectful both to the competition and the opposition and you can’t ask for any more than that.

“But we’re a long way from being there. We’re not even at the halfway stage of the season.

“There are two more games before we’ve played everybody and we’d obviously still like to be top of the pile at that stage.

“Then we can really reassess and cut up the rest of the season into blocks and see what we want to achieve with that.”

The second-placed Knights slipped up 26-18 at Whitehaven last week to give the Bulls daylight in pole position.

But Kear insists the promotion picture is far more than just a two-horse race. The Bulls make the trek to Recre to face Haven a week on Sunday, after hosting North Wales Crusaders this coming weekend.

He added: “You’ve not just got to think about York. There are a lot of good teams in there and Whitehaven are obviously one of them.

“I always thought it would be a tough call for Whitehaven (to beat York) but I also think it will be tough for us when we go up there.

“We went up to Workington and fell short there. It’s the travel and the logistics as well as the feisty opposition with the hostile crowd to contend with.

“There are challenges all over the place and we know there are many more to come. But obviously we are doing okay at the minute.”