The New Zealander suffered a soft tissue neck injury in the qualifying semi-final at Boundary Park, and has been having daily treatment for the last fortnight in a bid to play in the final.

The Dons are keeping Oldham guessing as to whether Luisi - a key attacking weapon in their armoury - will play and who is likely to replace him if he is ruled out.

"We've got a few options if Zeb doesn't play but we are keeping them under wraps," said Dons No 2 Tony Miller.

Luisi says that he is confident about the outcome irrespective of whether he plays or not.

"The rest of the boys are up for the game and no-one is treating Oldham lightly just because we've beaten them the last twice we've played them," he said. "Cup finals and play-off finals are all on the day and anything can happen.

"The fact that we lost in the Northern Rail Cup final will probably give us a bit of extra motivation because no-one will want to be on the losing side in successive finals.

"I think a few players possibly thought that we couldn't beat Salford, who were a Super League team in all but name, in the Northern Rail Cup final.

"But Oldham are on the same level as we are so it should be more of a level playing field."

Said Miller, who played for the last Dons side to win promotion back in the early 90s: "We hope to emulate Doncaster Rovers. They missed out on automatic promotion like we did but were promoted via the play-offs and we hope to do the same.

"We are not underestimating Oldham because we know that they are a good side and have quality players throughout their team. "But we feel we are on top of our game and that we have peaked at the right time."

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