WIN, lose or draw, Leigh RMI fans will be nervously monitoring their radios this weekend as the Nationwide Conference comes to a nerve-jangling conclusion.

Even if the Railwaymen are winners against already-relegated Kettering Town at Rockingham Road, there is no guarantee of survival.

Bizarrely, should circumstances be different, a draw could be good enough to book a place in non-league's elite division for next season.

Monday's home draw with Northwich means that Mark Patterson's men must now keep an eye on the rest of the results once their crunch match with the Poppies is complete.

Attentions will be at Manor Park where Nuneaton teeter on the brink at home to Farnborough - who have only just made the cut themselves. Woking - precariously placed a point behind the Railwaymen - must beat Telford if they are to have a say in the final shake-up.

Gravesend and Northfleet will be major players if they can overcome Chris Wilder's Halifax but the real poetry could take place at Broadhall Way.

Dino Maamria, the big-money signing for Stevenage so they could both cripple RMI and boost their own survival bid, could assist his old team-mates when he lines up to face Southport - another of his former clubs who have dropped like a stone to within sight of the Unibond.

But still the lion's share of the task must be taken on by Leigh.

They know that victory puts them in with a massive chance of avoiding the virtually inevitable for the third successive season.

"I'm glad that the game is away from home", stresses Patterson. "We have played better away since I arrived and that is where we have managed to pick up more points."

Last weekend, Leigh produced a surprise 1-0 win at Hereford to give themselves a lifeline and although three points against Kettering would hold less of a shock element, it would be the most valuable result in RMI's short history.