KEVIN Brown spoke of Leigh’s “devastation” after a try scoring debut was wrecked by his new team’s 24-23 home defeat to play-off rivals, York City Knights.

And head coach John Duffy warns Leigh can ill afford a repeat of their slip shod ways if they are to make any progress in the play-offs.

Centurions travel to Betfred Championship table toppers Toronto on Saturday, assured of top five but unsure if they’ve played their last match of the year at Leigh Sports Village.

“It was potentially our last home game and we wanted a win for the play-offs,” said the on-loan Warrington Wolves half back. “Everyone is devastated.

“When we were 18-8 up I just thought we needed to complete a couple more sets to potentially shut out that game.

“But we literally threw it away. We dropped a ball and they scored a try off the back of it.

“It wasn’t one man’s fault; we all have to take our own share of the blame.”

Defeat also took the gloss off Brown’s try in his first game since last season’s Grand Final.

“Getting over felt good and the celebrations were an emotional release because I have worked so hard to get back playing,” he explained.

“At one stage it looked as though I was going to get back at Warrington but that didn’t happen.

“The surgeon said to me it would be nine to 12 months so to get back in seven has made me proud. I felt fit and strong and I want to get rid of the rust as soon as possible.”

Coach John Duffy said of Brown: “He has been good since he came. He is a high-quality player.

“But we should be drilling teams away when we get that far in front.

"We have got to do better than that.

“We can’t have that mentality going into the play-offs.

"We will soon get found out.”

Toronto have won 25 of their 26 Championship games including a 14-8 victory at Leigh in February.

Defeat to York dropped Leigh to fourth, two points ahead of fifth placed Featherstone.

However, victory for Rovers at home to Toulouse on Saturday and defeat for Centurions in Canada will see the Yorkshire club climb a rung of the ladder with a superior points difference to snatch a home play-off place.

The play-off structure is as follows: round one, elimination final (4th v 5th), qualifying final, 2nd v 3rd.

Round two: loser of QF v winner of EF, 1st (Toronto) v winner QF.

Round three: Preliminary final-loser 2nd SF v winner of first semi-final;

Championship final: winner of 1st v winner QF against winner of preliminary final.