At one stage, he had extended his lead to six strokes but three bogeys on his back nine saw the Hull 30-year-old wobble and created an opening for his rivals.

However, he held on to card a level-par 72 and finish 14 under, three clear of Australians Steven Bowditch and Paul Sheehan.

“If I was in that situation again I’d probably handle it better and differently,” said Finch, who only secured his European Tour card in the final event of the 2007 season in Majorca in October.

“I think I was guilty of possibly playing too conservatively because of the six-stroke lead. I felt if I just played steady and created a few chances it was all in my hands.

“I spent too long looking at the leaderboard but it’s easy to get a bit lost with it all.

“I made a couple of mistakes. I was trying to avoid trouble and by doing that I found other trouble. I stumbled a bit on the back nine when I started thinking too much about what I was doing.”

Having not won before, Finch put himself in contention with a course-record 65 on Friday and although that record was overtaken the following day he followed up with a 64 to give himself a useful cushion heading into the final day.

And he admitted those two performances had him thinking about lifting the trophy long before he had actually achieved it.

“I kept telling myself in the past couple of days not to think about winning,” he said. “But it’s the first time I’ve been in this position and it was difficult to know how to do it. However, I felt it was in my hands if I played well.”