Whitehaven will want their play-off place secure before they complete the regular season at York on September 23.

There’s a desperate scramble going on for the three remaining play-off places between five clubs who are all still in contention.

It’s not easy to pick out which of the five have the toughest or easiest run in, as there are possible pitfalls along the way for all of them.

Bradford or York will gain automatic promotion by topping League One, and the other will obviously finish runners-up and be strong favourites to go through from the play-off route.

At the moment they are tied together on points and Bradford only lead by virtue of being 10 points better-off in the scoring differential.

But it’s who finishes third, fourth and fifth which really interests Whitehaven and their play-off rivals Workington Town, Oldham, Doncaster and Hunslet.

Haven can well say it’s in their own hands before they go to York as they play two of their main rivals, Doncaster and Hunslet at the Recreation Ground, and have two winnable games at second-bottom Hemel Stags and at home to third-bottom Coventry.

Neighbours Workington Town could possibly have the toughest run in as they go to Bradford on Sunday; host York on September 2 and complete their programme at in-form Doncaster on September 23.

In between, they must travel to Newcastle, who can be tricky on their own patch, while also hosting London Skolars.

Oldham have also to play York (away) and Bradford (home) and start with a tricky trip to Newcastle this weekend. Coventry at home should provide them with two points while they will complete the campaign in the capital against London Skolars.

Doncaster, in good heart after five successive victories, and visitors to the Recreation Ground on Sunday (kick-off 2pm) will probably fancy their chances of making the top five more than the others.

After visiting west Cumbria they have Newcastle (home), Keighley (away) and North Wales (home) before tackling Town on the final weekend in a potential winner-take-all fixture.

Hunslet, the fifth team in the frame, are at York this Sunday but apart from their trip to Whitehaven on September 9, have a reasonable finish – London Skolars (home), Newcastle (home) and Coventry (away).

It all points to a photo finish, with scoring differential deciding, and at the moment that’s bad news for Carl Forster’s men as they have the poorest of the five contenders.