LEIGH succeeded in their double mission on wet Sunday.

Victory against Prescot was essential, victory by a wide margin was crucial.

And coach Keith Latham reflected on a job well done after his side's runaway 64-6 win against Prescot hoisted them into joint top spot in Division Two.

"Our main objective was to win the game," he said. "We got a stranglehold after the first 20 minutes, and after that it was just a matter of racking up the points.

"Prescot's spoiling tactics and the way they slowed play down probably cost us another 18 points. We made some unforced errors, but overall I have to be pleased.

"We're now down to our last four games and we've set a target to win each one. If we do that we're up.

Leigh's squad strength, which Latham feels may prove decisive, was again in evidence. Although Tim Street and points ace Dean Purtill had big games, it was time for others to take centre stage.

Loose-forward Andy Fairclough, a recent signing from Wigan St Pat's, grabbed a hat-trick in only his third senior game and was a constant danger.

And then there was the second row pair of Paul Daniel and Matt Nixon who ripped the Panthers apart.

Daniel, especially, was in top form and brought a glowing tribute from Latham, who said: "He had a tremendous game. With his yardage, tackling stint and line breaks it was a great performance."

Fairclough opened the scoring with an angled run from Nixon's clever off-load, dummied over for his second and raced from the scrum base for his third.

Incisive centres Stuart Donlan and Alan Hadcroft picked up two tries apiece - Hadcroft's second from 70 metres being the game's highlight.

Emerging scrum-half Safraz Patel also collected a couple from close range as Leigh touched down six times in each half.

Street and Daniel each helped themselves to a try with Purtill boosting his season's points tally to 252 with a 20-point haul from a try and eight goals.

LEIGH: O'Loughlin; Purtill, Donlan, Hadcroft, Burrows; Gunning, Patel; Street, Jenkins, Liku, Daniel, Nixon, Fairclough. Subs: Costello, Sarsfield, Ingram, Hilton. Attendance: 1,205.

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