OUR last home game of the season against Workington a week on Sunday might be an emotional time.

We're hopefully going to be presented with the LHF National League Two trophy, while for a few guys, like Mick Ramsden and Lee Jackson, it will be their final home game before they retire.

However, we need to keep our minds on the job and finish the season as champions by not lowering our standards.

We had a good night on Sunday after the Hunslet game. It didn't go right through the night - not for me anyway as I had to work on Monday morning. But at the end of the day we had won the title and everyone needed to enjoy the moment.

It was a good feeling after the Hawks game and the reception we got from the fans was superb.

The league campaign has not finished yet, however, and we want our current five-point advantage to stay or increase, not go the other way.

We've got some work to do and, while the pressure is off for the team now regarding achieving what we set out to achieve before the start of the season, there is still unfinished business.

We trained last night as normal but we're going to give the players a week off until next Tuesday.

They deserve a bit of a break and it is Challenge Cup weekend anyway, with a few players probably going down for the final.

However, it will be back to business as usual after the weekend and in the week leading up to the Workington game - our last home match of the season - we'll need to get the focus back on.

We will need to improve as a team if we are to beat Town as they're a very good side.

We want to finish the season in a professional, successful manner and we can have a proper celebration then.

We can also look forward to the club's end-of-season presentation night next month knowing we will have something extra to celebrate.

I'm not going down to Cardiff for the Cup final this time but I think it will be a really good game to watch. I'm having a bit of a break and the weekend off, having a rest after a recent heavy workload, but I'm looking forward to watching it on television.

I went to the Millennium Stadium for the Leeds v Bradford final a couple of years ago and the atmosphere inside and around the stadium is fantastic. A lot of Leeds players have tasted that and will know what it's like, whereas Hull have not, but both sides have plenty of experience and Hull have a few guys who have played on the biggest stage in Australia.

The big match atmosphere is something to be savoured and, although it can be intimidating, I think the young players in-volved will rise to it.

Hull's form in the Cup has been very good, probably a bit better than their league form, while Leeds are going better in the league, but both sides will be going into the game on the back of a league defeat.

It will be interesting to see if Hull's pack can dominate the Leeds pack like they did against St Helens in the semi-final and maintain their defensive effort. But Leeds' pace, passing, skill and off-loads will cause Hull problems.

It's a tough call to pick a winner but, if I'm pushed, I'd go for a Leeds win by about 28-18.

Updated: 10:29 Wednesday, August 24, 2005