IT’S another crucial weekend in the race for the League One play-offs.

Two out of North Crusaders, Workington and Midlands Hurricanes will occupy the final two play-off berths and it’s so tight with the business end of the season fast approaching.

Carl Forster’s North Wales are seventh in the standings, but they have a game in hand over both of their play-off rivals with a month of the regular season left to play and next up is Sunday’s meeting with high-flying Keighley Cougars in Chester.

Forster told CruCast: “A team like Keighley, sometimes they don’t let you play for 80 minutes.

“So, that’s a job that I’ve got to do and present to the lads how we do that, how we stop their threats. But, we can’t sugar-coat it.

“They’re out-and-out second, obviously going for the league title. Unbelievable team, great players and it’s a massive task.

“But, like I said last week, no-one’s getting us down for a win there, so we can use that as fuel and we can use the underdog tag to kind of play with a bit more freedom than probably whet you’ve seen at the weekend.

“So, it’s another, I hate using the phrase a must win game, but it’s a really important game that, you know, I believe if we play to our potential, we can go and get two points.”

Forster has targeted three wins from the closing five matches to make sure of a play-off berth and one of these was achieved by the brilliant 28-24 comeback triumph at Workington last weekend.

He added: “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves as coaching staff and as players.

“Does it give us a little bit of breathing room? Maybe, but if we’d have got beat at the weekend, we’d have probably gone into this game thinking it’s do-or-die.

“So, we’ve just got to take it 80 minutes at a time and, obviously, just put our best foot forward.

“That’s all we can do, 100 per cent effort and, hopefully, that’s good enough against such a good side.”

Crusaders will be strengthened by the return of Rob Massam to the side on Sunday.

Experienced Massam has grabbed five tries in his two North Wales appearances so far this season and Forster described his availability as “a big boost for us”.

There’s a huge play-off showdown on Sunday as Midlands Hurricanes play host to Workington Town.

Leaders Oldham will be strong favourites to defeat visitors Newcastle Thunder and the weekend League One action opens tomorrow as Cornwall welcome Hunslet.