LEIGH RMI, a team with title aspirations around Easter, can only feel joy they are not involved in the relegation scrap.

A combination of too many games and a sudden dip in form, underlined by Saturday's disappointing 1-0 fall against Frickley Athletic, would have spelled certain relegation.

Happily, that match is now out of the way - and, hopes manager Steve Waywell, out of his side's system.

Tonight RMI must get it all together as they face Droylsden in the President's Cup Final.

"We need a vast improvement," said Waywell.

Frickley, languishing just above the relegation zone, looked the more dangerous side against RMI's ineffectiveness.

They lacked co-ordination in midfield, and, apart from a couple of telling through balls from Ian Monk and some determined running from striker Tony Black, appeared clueless when it came to creating chances.

Thank goodness for goalkeeper Dave Felgate who kept his side in the game when he palmed away a 20-yard drive from Scott Collins just after the break and produced an equally brilliant diving save from a Dean Jones free kick in the 77th minute.

But even he could do little to prevent the winner three minutes from time, a shot sweetly struck from the edge of the box by sub striker Carl Fothergill who curled it out of Felgate's reach and into the top corner.

A deserved strike it was, too, with Frickley unlucky not to have been given a penalty when Simon Kay looked to have upended the hard-working Scott Armstrong in the box.

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