LEIGH Centurions used a snub at last week's National League awards ceremony as additional motivation for their promotion-deciding clash with Whitehaven.

The Cumbrians scooped the prizes at the end-of-season presentation in Leeds, while Leigh left empty-handed but with a burning desire to exact their revenge.

That came in front of a capacity 11,005 crowd at Widnes, where veteran half-back Tommy Martyn rolled back the years to help steer his hometown team back to the top flight with a 32-16 triumph after extra time.

"We were hurt on Tuesday night, especially with not winning the club of the year," said Martyn, who defied medical advice to play with an arm damaged in his side's defeat at Halifax seven weeks earlier.

"I had a chat on the way home from Leeds about playing and it was half past four when I got to sleep.

"I phoned Darren (Abram) the next morning and told him to put me in the team.

"I didn't want to finish on a defeat at Halifax and now I'm very happy that we've got Leigh into Super League.

"Apart from winning the Lance Todd Trophy, this is the proudest moment in my career."

Centurions coach Abram, who had rejected rumours in the week that Martyn was set to play, said: "It was the final ace in our pack.

"If Tommy says he's okay, he's okay and he proved it today. You can't leave a player like that on the touchline."

Abram continued: "We've had a tough year with lots of things going against us.

"We've been written off and then people were making us favourites.

"But as soon as it went to extra-time I knew we'd be all right with our fitness levels.

"We're a team who've had our ups and downs but we've got the mental toughness and that's why we've come out victors today - it's absolutely superb."

Martyn, who officially retired at the end of the match, continually pinned Whitehaven back with his tactical kicks and got on the scoresheet with a crucial solo try.

Fittingly, he also had the final say with a drop goal in the second period of extra time.

"I knew Tommy was going to play," said Whitehaven coach Steve McCormack. "All the players knew. And he showed some quality touches."

The victory was especially sweet for home-grown full-back Neil Turley, who was in the Centurions team beaten in each of the two previous Grand Finals but made a valuable contribution with a record 18-point haul.

He kicked six goals from eight attempts, put over two drop goals which took the game into extra-time and scored the final try of match after following up his own kick.

"It's third time lucky and it's fantastic," he said.

"It was not a nice feeling to lose two but now we've got all our goals we set at the beginning of the year."