UNDERBANK coach Richard Knight knows his side has to get back to their best if they are to beat Coventry Bears at The Cross tomorrow (2.30) and reach a fourth successive Grand Final.

Last week’s play-off disappointment against National Conference League Division III title rivals Hemel Stags leaves the reigning champions with one more bite of the cherry to get to this season’s final showdown at Featherstone Rovers.

As the men from Holmfirth plan their final title defence, Knight understands that some improvements need to be made after last week’s out-of-sorts performance.

Confidence will come with the news of Jordan Williams, Rob Joyce and James Usher’s return as Bank appear to be at full strength.

And preparations for the shake-up couldn’t be going any smoother.

“Last week we didn’t play brilliantly and, overall, we were annoyed with our performance,” said the Bank chief.

“But after watching the DVD we weren’t very far off at all and if the ball had bounced the opposite direction a few times then we might be having the week off and Hemel would have been playing instead.

“We did take quite a few positives out of that game and then in Wednesday night’s session we probably trained the best we have all year.

“Coventry are a good team. They’re in the semi because of that fact.

“We’ve played against them twice this year and they have both been tough contests, so we know what to expect and they play pretty similar to Hemel.

“They are a physical team and when they came up to our patch a month ago they gave us a good game, and we’re under no illusions that we will have to be at our best to get through to this final.”

Rangers have always had to take the long route to the Grand Final and that undoubtedly contributed to last year’s triumph.

And Knight believes that not securing a direct route to the big game could turn out in Rangers favour again as not having a week off provides the chance to build some form.

“We’ve never got to the final any other way so we don’t know any other way,” he added.

“We don’t particularly play very well when we have had a week off, like the way we played against Hemel and like the way we played two weeks previous against Nottingham.

“So we haven’t got that excuse this week. We’ve trained really well and we will train real well again tonight and then give it our best shot on Saturday.”