Leeds Corinthians 15, Bradford Salem 14 - Minutes after the final whistle sounded at Nutty Slack all the talk from Bradford Salem was that they would have to win their final two matches to clinch promotion from Yorkshire Division Three.

"We seemed to be nervous - to scared to do anything in case we made a mistake," said one sidelined squad member.

The equation seemed to be that Salem must win at York RI next Saturday and at home to Wath the following weekend to overhaul Stocksbridge for the runners-up spot.

As pints of beer were drunk and pie and beans scoffed in the Leeds Corinthians clubhouse, the mood hardly became less sombre.

Then Salem's match secretary Neil Klenk walked down the fire escape for a bit of peace and quiet and phoned the official result through to Snowden's Sports Agency in Sheffield.

Centre Klenk, still tackling like a good 'un at the age of 41, did his duty, and then asked: "You don't happen to know the score from the Bramley Phoenix v Stocksbridge match do you? Bramley 58, Stocksbridge 5? Thanks."

That astonishing scoreline from a side who had nothing to play for against one chasing promotion certainly put a smile back on Paul Rae's face - not that one is ever that far away mind.

Salem's first-team manager said: "I

wasn't surprised that Bramley won, but I was amazed at the score.

"They have done us a big favour, and now we only have to win either at York RI or at home to Wath as the results puts us 94 points ahead of Stocksbridge on points difference and they have finished their programme."

However, Rae still found it hard to comprehend that Corinthians, who are sixth, seemed to be hungrier for the points than his side.

"They wanted it more than us, which is a sad reflection when they have nothing to play for and we are fighting for promotion.

"We didn't contain their runners out wide. We gave them far too much space and the ball that we won we kicked away far too easily - and to their main runners. We didn't stick to our game-plan, which was too keep it tighter."

Salem's improved pack clearly had the edge in the maul and the scrum, but Corinthians - via their right winger Richard Merritt and full back Russ Bradley - had backs who made good ground on the counter-attack.

The first try for Corinthians really did come out of the blue. A 12th-minute penalty attempt by fly half Carl Maynard flew high into the air and just shaved the far upright. The ball bounced and, with Salem expecting it to go dead, it reared up, Merritt steaming in to touch it down, leaving Maynard with an easy conversion.

However, Salem fly half Andy Dalton then landed three penalties as Corinthians struggled to cope in the pack, and Rae said: "We deserved to be ahead as we were the better side, and they couldn't cope with our maul.

"I said at half-time 'Let's keep driving it on'. It might not be attractive, but it has won us a lot of games, and that is why I brought Matt Child on in the closing stages because I thought he would control that better."

Merritt's second try on the hour after a fine attack gave Corinthians the lead again, but visiting centre Lee Bowyer's hard work down the middle in attack then set up the platform for prop Dave Luxton to go over.

Maynard's 71st-minute penalty then proved the clincher, and, despite nine minutes of injury time, which worried the Corinthians supporters more than their counterparts from Heaton, there was surprisingly no further scoring.

Corinthians' coach Dave 'Chick' Murray said: "The hard work we have done with our pack, and with our fitness in general over the past month, has paid off.

"We have also speeded up our forward play and that won us the game here. Our lock Richard Proud, who says he is retiring at the end of the season, was our man of the match. He played out of his skin, but we also have some excellent backs - Richard Merritt, Russ Bradley and Nigel Foster, and Robert Tillotson was our best defender."