JOHN Kear will use the pre-season friendly against Swinton as evidence for the Bulls not to take the Championship’s bottom side lightly.

Kear’s men travel to Sale tomorrow in confident mood on the back of three successive wins.

Hosts Swinton have been battered for 110 points in their last two outings and are the only team in the division yet to get off the mark after four rounds.

But Kear intends to give his players a refresher about what the Lions are capable of by reminding them of the last time the sides met.

The Bulls coach was hugely critical of the performance in the 26-22 warm-up loss at Dewsbury a couple of months ago.

And he believes it will prove a relevant motivational tool to maintain their strong form.

Kear said: “We need to take heed of it. We weren’t very good, they played very well and beat us.

“It certainly needs to be in our mind but obviously I think we are in a different place now with our development as a team.

“It is a different game but I will be certainly reminding the players that they are coming up against a pretty good team who, in all honesty, should have beaten us by more points than they did.”

Stuart Littler’s side will be hoping to have key playmaker Martyn Ridyard back in the ranks.

The 34-year-old former Leigh stalwart, who joined in the off-season after scoring more than 2,000 points for the Centurions, missed last week’s 46-10 loss at Widnes.

Kear, who welcomes back Anthony Walker from injury, added: “Missing Martyn will obviously affect them.

“It becomes a totally different proposition if he is playing because he’s a very good player.

“I still think we’ve got lots of room for improvement with our decision-making and defensive work.

“But what we’re doing with the ball is pretty good and I’m quite at ease with that.

“There’s lots to work on but we’re ever evolving and will be throughout the season.”

The game, which kicks off at 11.45am, is part of a double-header at Heywood Road and will be followed by Toulouse against Widnes.

The French side are currently playing their home games in England because of Covid regulations.