LEIGH RU Put themselves back into the promotion frame with a 39-9 win at Southport.

Leigh took an early lead when a quickly taken tap penalty resulted in Ian Wood crossing in the corner, the touchline conversion going narrowly wide.

Despite their lowly league position, Southport produced some spirited forward play and continually put Leigh on the defensive with some strong driving mauls and disruptive scrimmaging.

Two successful penalty goals saw them take a 6-5 lead, the second of which earned centre Wilcock a yellow card and 10 minute sin-bin for preventing a quick free-kick.

A Wilcock penalty on his return restored Leigh's lead to 8-6 at half-time.

From the re-start, Leigh picked up their tempo and full-back Bentham fielded a speculative kick through to split the cover defence with an 80 metre burst to the home line. Despite being held just short of the line, No8 Sutton was on hand to complete the score, the conversion attempt rebounding off the post.

Southport replied with a successful penalty from the kick-off to reduce the lead to 13-9 but a determined thrust by Wilcock following on from some fine forward interplay produced another converted try to stretch the lead. A further sharp break by stand-off Wood saw him feed Jones on a crash ball to split the cover and race to the line, also converted by Wilcock.

A farcical refereeing decision saw a player from each side receive a yellow card. Unfortunately it proved to be Wilcock's second yellow and thus automatic red, and when substitute Browning received the same within one minute of taking the field, Leigh were reduced to 13 men for the remainder of the game.

Despite this handicap, a strong midfield surge by Sutton resulted in a try by Fletcher, and a late interception by winger Egerton saw him race 70 metres to the line for a try converted by Jones.

The days results put Leigh back in contention for a promotion spot but some tough games ahead will require a much better performance than this to achieve their ambition.

Lostock 5 Leigh Hawks 29

The Hawks eventually overcame their gritty neighbours Lostock away on Saturday.

It was a determined start by Lostock who belied their lowly league position by playing some powerful rugby in the opening exchanges.

Once the game settled though, it was the Hawks who began to dominate by getting the ball wide quickly, and using their speed to punch holes in the Lostock defence.

With the error rate high in windy conditions the Hawks became a little frustrated until Peters went over in the corner from a five yard scrum for an unconverted try. The Hawks failed to add to their tally until a Greenwood penalty gave them a narrow 8-0 lead at half time.

Lostock came out of the blocks the better after half time and scored an unconverted try following a period of sustained pressure. Leigh then responded with a fine solo effort from Peters who then completed his hat trick after a clever offload from Krause, who capped a man of the match performance with a try of his own late on.

Greenwood was successful with the boot for all three tries in the second half.

Tofts 17 Didsbury TocH 5

Broughton 7 Leigh Vets 77

Leigh's scorers were M Dainty 3, S Marsden 2, S Smith 2, I Cumming, A Billinge, H Delaney and K Jones with I Westwell converting all 11.

Colts 12 Wilmslow Colts 6

Leigh completed their league season with a solid win over their Cheshire visitors to seal a top four spot in the table.

Leigh fell foul of the early decisions and were behind to a penalty. They hit back strongly when good link play between backs and forwards led to a try by Phil Gwilliam which Ryan Barker converted from wide out.

Wilmslow gained a second penalty before the break but Leigh were to dominate the second period. They were finally rewarded when Phil Gwilliam scored a second from a pass by David Charles.

Both sides had further scoring chances but the scoreline was to stay unchanged as Leigh ran out deserved winners.