MIDDLESBROUGH winger Wes Henry finished as he began for Durham when he raced 50 metres to snatch victory in the third minute of injury time against Northumberland at Darlington.

The high-speed Henry, who scored two tries on his debut against Yorkshire, went under the posts to give Kevan Oliphant a simple conversion to seal the 22-20 win.

The victory meant Durham will scrape into the senior County Championship event next season if the same much-criticised format is retained.

Henry, an Irishman who lives in Stockton and has been studying on Teesside, recently qualified as a physiotherapist and had an interview in Glasgow last week, but several clubs will be keeping an eye on his situation.

He had not seen much of the ball against Northumberland, but when Oliphant worked a miss-move and gave the ball to David Glendenning the host club's full back was able to put the winger into space.

He beat one man and outpaced the cover to provide a dramatic finish to Durham's 125th anniversary season, crowning a brave comeback from 15-0 down after 22 minutes.

Playing downwind, Northumberland scored tries through Blaydon lock Jason Oakes and Tynedale winger Ed Holmes, with fly half James Lofthouse adding a conversion and a penalty.

Durham then got into the game and were happy to trail only 15-5 at half-time after their pressure brought a try for West Hartlepool prop Brett Cullinane.

But they fell further behind nine minutes into the second half when winger Jamie Tapster scored and it was a further ten minutes before they replied.

Strong pressure allowed Oliphant to give centre Kevin McCallum a simple run in and after converting Oliphant added a penalty to make it 20-15.

Northumberland enjoyed a territorial advantage during the last ten minutes, but when it came to the decisive moment they had no-one to match Henry's blistering pace.

* Leeds Tykes, who have retained their place in the Premiership, have released former West Hartlepool utility back Jon Benson.