THE sighs of relief echoing around Hilton Park at full-time were almost deafening.

Leigh just managed to edge out an enterprising Barrow side, finally winning 32-26.

But, while the fans nervously squirmed in their seats, the calmest man around was Leigh boss Ian Millward.

"I never felt we would lose,' he said. "We always had the ammunition to do it provided we could get our completion rate up to scratch."

In the end it took a 64th minute touchdown from sub Heath Cruickshank to decide a contest in which the teams shared 10 tries in an attacking feast of football.

"Give some credit to Barrow," added Millward. "Paul Charlton has them playing some super stuff and they are averaging 24 points a game despite their position in the table. And in Darren Holt they have a player that every Super League club is looking at." He certainly pulled all the strings as Barrow led three times.

But Holt, one of the division's top points scorers, could manage only three successful shots at goal while Leigh's Paul Wingfield landed six from six - ultimately Leigh's margin of success.

In the end Leigh had too much all-round firepower with Tim Street, Jamie Kennedy, Paul Anderson and Stuart Donlan in top form.

But they were their own worst enemies in the first half, repeatedly failing to complete their sets of six and turning possession over to the eager Barrow side.

You could have heard a pin drop as Charlton's heroes took charge. But the lively Mick Higham and Saf Patel set up a try under the posts for Anderson, then Street blasted clean through from 20 metres to level.

Three minutes from the break Holt helped himself to give his side the lead as Leigh were again made to pay for elementary errors, and minutes into the second half they were facing a 10-point deficit.

Finally, Leigh came to their senses.

Their completion rate suddenly improved, errors were kept to a minimum and the fightback was on.

Kennedy sent in Dave Ingram for his 17th try of the season, Wingfield added the goal and a penalty. And they got their noses in front when Patel, Radney Bowker and Anderson linked down the left for Donlan to romp clear.

Barrow, however, were far from finished and hit back to level at 26 across the board.

That forced Millward to show his hand.

He had Cruickshank sat on the bench nursing a shoulder injury and was hoping not to have to use his Aussie star.

"I didn't want to use Heath or Alan Hadcroft unless I had to," revealed Millward. "But at that stage I felt we needed their impact."

Cruickshank soon made his presence felt, shoring up a suspect defence and then spinning out of two tackles to grab the clinching score 16 minutes from time.

Millward concluded: "At this stage of the season you just take each game as it comes and pick up what points are on offer."

LEIGH: Donlan; Wingfield, Ingram, Kerr, Arkwright; Bowker, Patel; Street, Higham, Pucill, Anderson, Kendrick, Kennedy. Subs: Cruickshank, Hadcroft, Whittle, Norman. Att: 1,720.

Our picture shows Leigh hooker Mick Higham fending off a Barrow defender

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.