LEIGH clinched promotion to North One West with a 34-26 play-off victory over Liverpool St Helens.

The showdown between Leigh – runners-up in the North Lancs and Cumbria League – and the second-placed side in the South Lancs and Cheshire League was always going to be a close-fought contest.

The Hand Lane men had home advantage after finishing the regular season with a slightly better record, losing just two of their 26 matches compared to Liverpool's four.

Leigh took that form into the opening exchanges to storm into a 14-0 lead after only seven minutes following tries from Ryan McKinstry and skipper Iain Wood, who touched down out wide after a fast driving maul.

Both tries were converted by Rob Drake and the match looked all over once Sean McDonald crossed for another converted try for Leigh.

But the visitors gathered themselves to score two converted tries before the break, the second coming right on half time.

Liverpool continued to batter away at the Leigh defence after the interval before their winger scored out wide.

With a two point gap in Leigh's favour a Drake penalty kick provided welcome relief, but back came the Saints with another seven points to put them in the lead for the first time.

Trailing by two points, Drake calmly slotted over another penalty to put the home side back in front and was on hand for the conversion after Steve Millard, in his final match before retirement, grounded under the posts to seal a deserved victory for Vila Matautia's side.