PLAYER-COACH Carl Forster says he’s ready to get cracking in the League 1 play-offs.

Forster and his North Wales Crusaders’ side have successfully qualified for the end-of-season play-offs following a tough campaign and they will head to Workington Town for an elimination final this Sunday.

Forster told the Crusaders’ website: “That break after the Workington away game probably came at the right time for me.

“I didn’t have a pre-season due to having surgery and the start of the season wasn’t great for us.

“But for me personally, just, I thought it was awful.

“I’ve slowly found my feet. I still think we could be a lot better, but when you’re trying to catch up with pre-season during the season, it is a little bit stop-start.

“So, touch wood, we have a good dig in the play-offs.

“The body feels okay-ish and we’ll have a decent off-season and we’ll go again next year.”

It’s been a terrific effort from the Crusaders to qualify for the play-offs, especially considering they lost their first six matches of the season.

Seven victories from their last 12 matches made sure of a top-six finish in League 1, which was confirmed by Sunday’s 62-20 success at home to London Skolars.

Matt Reid crossed for a hat-trick of tries as Cru played at their Colwyn Bay base for only the second half this season, while Rob Massam marked his final home appearance for the club with a first half try.

Jack Houghton, Toby Hughes, Josh Lynch, Leon Hayes (2) and Dave Gibbons (2) grabbed the remaining tries on a fine day for the Crusaders.

Reflecting on the performance, Forster said: “It was a good performance.You know, there were some scrappy areas, some 10-minute periods where we kind of just lost our way, but I said to the boys, subconsciously, you do try things that you normally wouldn’t do in a play-off game, so to speak.

“So, it was a must-win game.

“We won it. We’ve cemented that play-off spot, quite convincingly now, and you look at the Rochdale result and I’m happy we’ve gone through on more wins than points difference.

“That’s irrelevant. We’re in the top-six and we’ve got nothing to lose come next week.”

Rochdale Hornets were the only side who could have denied Crusaders a play-off berth, but they were defeated 18-12 during their long trek to Cornwall.

This Sunday sees a reunion for Cru with former head coach Anthony Murray, who is now at the helm with Workington.

The winners of Sunday’s elimination tie will go forward to take on the loser of the tie between Doncaster and Oldham, which will also take place this weekend.

Whoever triumphs between Doncaster and Oldham will face a trip to runners-up Hunslet during the second round of League 1 play-off encounters.