Leigh responded to St Helens' fightback to secure a Betfred Super League play-off place with a thrilling 18-12 win on Friday.

The Leopards' top-six hopes had been in the balance after Saints capitalised on a Ricky Leutele sin-binning to cancel out a 12-0 deficit but Josh Charnley clinched a nail-biting home victory at Leigh Sports Village.

For Leigh, the equation had been relatively straightforward - win or, in all likelihood, miss out on the top six altogether.

They rose to that challenge and will now line up in the eliminators next week.

Their form in the latter part of the campaign suggests they could be a threat and Saints, despite apparently limping over the line, may take encouragement from their battling second-half showing.

Saints suffered a blow before kick-off when hooker Moses Mbye pulled up with a calf injury in the warm-up, forcing coach Paul Wellens to draft in Jake Burns.

The Merseysiders initially started well and thought they had claimed an early lead when Tommy Makinson crashed over in the corner, only for play to be pulled back for obstruction.

Leigh also threatened but hooker Edwin Ipape was penalised for a knock-on attempting to score from close range.

Ipape was far from happy with that decision, claiming a Saints player had interfered, but Leigh did benefit from a close call to take the lead on 21 minutes.

Jack Welsby was ruled to have brushed the touchline attempting to gather a Gareth O'Brien kick and the hosts took full advantage as John Asiata bounced out of a tackle to stretch out and touch down.

Saints' hopes of a quick response were snuffed out as Darnell McIntosh intercepted from Mark Percival but the Leigh winger spurned a gilt-edged chance when he later dropped a pass.

Leigh kept up the pressure and did claim a second try two minutes before the interval when Matt Moylan sent Leutele over on the left.

Leigh should have had another soon after the break when Charnley brilliantly collected a pass one-handed and burst away but Moylan could not take his return ball.

Saints were offered a way back into the game when Leutele was sin-binned following a challenge on Welsby and made it count with two tries in quick succession.

Makinson claimed the first with a superb diving finish in the corner and Morgan Knowles followed him over after a bouncing Lewis Dodd kick was knocked back.

With Jon Bennison converting both, the scores were back level but Leigh recovered their composure after Leutele's return and this time there was no mistake as Charnley hit a Moylan pass at speed.

Moylan missed the conversion but landed his third goal of the night from a penalty soon after to complete the job.