Workington Town hooker James Newton feels his team have to go into back-to-back games against League 1's top two aiming for points with the pressure on in the play-offs battle.

Town have now won seven of their last eight games, only losing to rivals Whitehaven because of a late kick from Dan Abram, and beat Coventry 40-16 on Sunday.

But they face two of the toughest games of the season next with a trip to Bradford Bulls followed by the visit of York City Knights to Derwent Park.

The Bulls have racked up 94 points in their last two games with a pair of shutouts and have only lost two games all season, one of which was when they came to Workington in April.

York set a world record for the biggest away win in professional rugby league when they hammered West Wales 130-0 on Saturday and are level on points with Bradford.

Newton said: "The pressure is on for us because we want to be mixing it with these sides.

"There are the games our lads really want to play in.

"Bradford at Odsal will be a big scalp for us to aim for and I would say York are the best team in the league by a bit at the moment.

"They've set the standard, they're the team to beat and we have to play them believing we can.

"We're targeting one of those play-off spots and to get into that final because once you're in there anything can happen."

Sunday's game against Coventry was not the smoothest of victories and although he was happy with the points Newton admitted it felt like a missed opportunity to lay down a marker.

"The big thing over the last few weeks was just to develop some consistency and get into good habits leading towards these big games," he said.

"I thought it was a game where there was a chance to get into those habits.

"Obviously a win's a win but it was a bit of a scratchy performance."