JOHN KEAR has turned up the title heat on York City Knights.

Kear's Bradford team head into the final four games in the unusual position of chasing after losing top spot following defeat at home to Workington. That allowed York to steal a march with a two-point lead heading into September.

But Kear is interested to see how their season-long rivals cope with the extra focus now the tables have turned.

He said: “It would be nice for them to feel the pressure that we’ve had to deal with all year.

“The spotlight is on them for the first time and we’ll see how they respond.

“We’re not expecting any slip-ups or any favours from other teams.

“We’ve to look after ourselves and be as good as we possibly can be.”

While the Bulls prepare for a derby with Keighley on Sunday, the Knights face a testing trip to Derwent Park.

But Kear is not banking on Leon Pryce’s side doing their coach's hometown team a favour by following up their 24-18 victory at Odsal with another big scalp.

“I’m not that hopeful of Workington beating York because I don’t think they can play to that level week in, week out,” he reckoned.

“I’ve no doubt (ex-Bulls star) Leon will have prepared specially for Bradford and the big advantage he had was that he played with a number of those players last year.

“But that’s all credit to him for the job he did and all credit to Workington for the job they did.

“I think they really did raise their game for us and I’m not sure they can maintain that for the next game against York.

“I hope I’m proved wrong but that’s just my theory.”