DREW Hutchison says defeat at Betfred Championship leaders, Toronto Wolfpack, hasn’t derailed Leigh’s bid for a place in the Middle 8s.

Centurions travel to Batley on Sunday for the first of four games that will define the club’s season.

Win all of them and that should be good enough for Leigh to finish in the top four having played all teams above them in the table.

In contrast, Toulouse, Featherstone, Halifax and London Broncos face a series of key games against each other that will impact on the finishing positions.

“If we win these remaining four games and win them the way we want to we should make the top four,” said Hutchison.

“It wasn’t the result we wanted against Toronto but we are still being positive.

“Towards the end we scored a few nice tries and it proved to us we can do it against the top sides.

“We have done a lot of travelling but hopefully that won’t impact on us too much,” added Hutchison of the near 7,000 miles round trip to Toronto.

Centurions’ Australian half back agreed stifling temperatures at Lamport Stadium potentially contributed to Leigh’s 46-28 defeat.

But he’ll be glad of the sun on his back after Leigh’s previous trip to Mount Pleasant back in March.

On that occasion Centurions ground out an 8-4 victory in the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup; Kieron Purtill’s first since taking over from Neil Jukes.

“That was one of the coldest days I have ever played on,” he agreed.

“It will definitely be a lot easier playing in drier conditions than it was that day.

“Batley have given us two tough games so far this year. And I am sure this weekend is going to be no different.”

Leigh could be boosted by the returns of Craig Hall, Jamie Acton and possibly Micky Higham for Sunday’s game.

“It was a different experience,” agreed Purtill of the trip to Toronto.

“We didn’t give a good account of ourselves in the first half and that was the most disappointing aspect.

“We are going to have to win our four remaining games to make the top four and rely on some other results going our way.

“It will be polar opposite in the weather to last time we played at Batley but we need to make sure we get the same result.”

With Toronto nailed on for top spot here are the remaining fixtures for the teams above Leigh.

Toulouse: v London (h), v Barrow (a), v Halifax (a), v Dewsbury (h)

Featherstone: v Halifax (a), v Swinton (a), v London Broncos (h), v Toronto (a)

Halifax: v Featherstone (h), v London Broncos (a), Toulouse (h), v Rochdale (h)

London: v Toulouse (a), v Halifax (h), v Featherstone (a), v Barrow (a)