Gareth O'Brien was the hero for Salford Red Devils as they secured a tense 12-6 win over Leigh Centurions for their fifth successive Betfred Super League victory.
O'Brien was on the end of a slick passing move to score the game's decisive try 12 minutes from the end, after Salford had been unable to breach a stern Centurions defence for long periods.
The try, along with the conversion from Michael Dobson, proved just enough to keep the Red Devils at the top end of the table and condemned Leigh to their fourth consecutive defeat.
In a match that was littered with handling errors, O'Brien converted an early penalty to put the hosts ahead before Mitch Brown touched down Martyn Ridyard's grubber kick for their only score in the 29th minute to go 6-2 ahead.
However, with only two minutes of the half remaining, Salford drew level when some quick passing to the right gave centre Kris Welham the opportunity to score.
Ridyard and O'Brien both missed drop-goal attempts either side of the break with the scores still level before the latter came up with the winning moment to keep them in second place.
Red Devils head coach Ian Watson insisted he will not let his side become complacent on the back of their five-match winning streak.
#SLSalLei@SalfordDevils second at Easter after picking up their fifth win on the trot! pic.twitter.com/MMs2U1BDH5
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) April 14, 2017
"We have talked about being resilient and coming through close games and we showed that again today.
"Last season we were involved in a lot of close games and just didn't quite get there. We won't get carried away with winning five games in a row.
"I thought Leigh were great and they turned up here and had a real dig. They are an aggressive team but our middles stood up to them pretty well.
"Gareth O'Brien had been ill all night and as of 10am thought he wouldn't be playing.But he said he was okay and put his hand up to play, so it was a real good dig for us."
Great effort from the lads! That first away @SuperLeague win still eludes us! #ComeOnLeythers
— Leigh Centurions (@LeighCenturions) April 14, 2017
Leigh coach Neil Jukes said: "It was a really tough game.
"We were dumb in some of the plays which added some pressure on us. I thought Salford's game management and kicking game was superior.
"We hung in there but I am disappointed and the lads are really frustrated.
"Effort and attitude alone won't get us there. I thought our discipline was outstanding. But in the second half we killed ourselves with poor completion - it was only 50 per cent.
"We struggled to build pressure and our kicking needed to be better. We will get patched up for Easter Monday (at home to Hull) and be ready to go again."
