SUCCESSIVE victories over a side from the top five has seen Leigh adjust their sights.
They would have been happy to finish anywhere outside the bottom two. Now they have targeted a place in the top five and a shot at the end of season Division One play-offs.
"I've said all along we have nothing to fear in this division," said coach Keith Latham after Sunday's last-gasp 26-23 win against second-placed Hunslet.
"It's taking time for us to adjust but when we get it right we can live with the best."
Latham and the fans had just emerged from an emotional wringer having seen Leigh lose it, win it, lose it and win it again.
"It was a nailbiter," added Latham. "But I was always confident if we could get some pressure on their line somebody would come up with the goods."
The unlikely hero was Aussie back rower Steve Garcis, a late sub for Tim Street, who clattered his way over for the winning try in injury time.
But Leigh's chances of collecting a fourth successive home win looked distinctly grim when they went in 19-6 down at half-time.
"We were quite calm about things at the break," Latham admitted. "We knew we'd made mistakes, and, provided we didn't repeat them, we'd get back in the game."
They were 13-0 down inside 16 minutes. But, in a foretaste of what was to come, Leigh piled on the pressure and Hunslet cracked. Phil Kendrick collected his second try in successive matches when he raced onto Jason Donohue's perfectly-weighted kick to the posts and Jason O'Loughlin landed the first of five goals.
But their comeback was almost strangled at birth as Hunslet powered further ahead.
The second half saw Leigh totally transformed.
Livewire Anthony Murray and Kendrick combined to send Keiron Purtill in for his first try in Leigh colours.
Then a lack of discipline handed the initiative firmly to Leigh. Hunslet committed every offence under the sun and were lucky to finish the game with a full compliment.
But Leigh kept their cool and went in front for the first time when the Murray/Kendrick combination split the defence wide open and Murray gleefully scampered to the posts for a six-pointer that put them ahead for the first time.
Leigh looked to have ruined all their good work when slack defending allowed Hunslet back.
But, after John Gunning had badly sliced a kickable penalty, Murray's gamble to run a blind side move in injury time turned up trumps with Garcis muscling over for the winner.
LEIGH: Donlan; Ingram, Purtill, Kendrick, Hill; O'Loughlin, Donohue; Street, Murray, Pucill, Whittle, Grundy, Costello. Subs: Garces, Liku, Gunning. Jenkins.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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