Leigh Centurions head coach John Duffy has set his sights on getting the club back into Super League, but he knows that to fulfil his dream the Centurions will have to do it the hard way.

Following their 24-20 defeat at Featherstone at the weekend – their seventh of the season – Leigh now fill the last place in the race for the Championship play-offs and a crack at the Grand Final.

And the 39-year-old, who played more than 200 games for the club, has the evidence of that one-point win over the Raiders in the 1895 Cup to remind him that tomorrow’s visit to Craven Park will be no walk in the park.

“I don’t think that promotion has been the target throughout the season. We just want to see how far this group could go. We just wanted to be competitive in every game” Duffy told League Weekly.

“Hopefully we are coming good at the right time, but only time will tell. Regardless of results, I am proud of this group.

“We have certainly exceeded our expectations at the start of the year about what we thought we would do.”

Duffy moved in at the Leigh Sports Village last November after a stint at Featherstone to take up his 'dream job' and they are now on the brink of a return to Super League.

While Duffy has been keen to introduce young local talent into the side they will arrive with several seasoned Super League players in their line-up, including Gareth Hock, whose contract with the Raiders was cancelled without his making a single appearance in Barrow colours.

Playmaker Ryan Brierley missed the trip to Featherstone with a damaged fibula, but the Centurions will include several faces well known to Raiders’ fans in Greg McNally, Martyn Ridyard, Cory Paterson and Mickey Higham among them.

Barrow were beaten 46-30 in the Championship game at the Leigh Sports Village, although the drop-goal defeat in the 1895 Cup that will offer Raiders some comfort.