Keighley Cougars 20

Leigh Centurions 20 THE Centurions made an encouraging start to life under new coach Ian Millward. They looked a different proposition to recent Leigh teams as they battled back from 16-0 down and might even have gone on to snatch a victory.

But a fully-deserved draw against a team likely to be up there at the final shake-up will have boosted confidence no end at Hilton Park.

While there are still several rough edges to Leigh's game, judging by Sunday's performance they seem to have made progress under Millward.

The defensive side of their game still needs some work; they are still sluggish around the play-the-ball and still look short of pace out wide. But the overall improvement was plain to see.

With Tau Liku and John Costello playing wider roles and Tim Street and Dave Whittle showing signs of forging an impressive front row partnership, Leigh's pack is starting to look the part. And once half-backs Saf Patel and Craig Dean begin to gel, they'll trouble most teams.

Alan Hadcroft showed some nice touches going forward while co-centre Kieron Purtill put in a tremendous defensive stint, aspects of the game that particularly pleased Millward.

"Bearing in mind this team has come off the back off a poor year, I thought they stuck at it well," he said. "At times they still have a lot of negative thoughts, but all that comes down to confidence.

"But I have to admit they stuck to their jobs well, especially after going 16-0 down. It would have been easy to jump off the merry-go-round at that stage but they toughed it out and finished strongly." Millward fancies the Cougars to be among the Division One front-runners this time, especialy after such a heavy recruitment drive.

One of their new faces, loose-forward Martin Wood, returned to Cougar Park from Sheffield and indicated that he'll be a big threat at this level.

Wood pinched the Cougar's first try when he won a scramble on the line after his chip through had londged at the foot of a post. There was nothing lucky about his second try as he glided onto a Jason Ramshaw pass to go clean through from 15 metres. Two goals from Nathan Antonik and a 28th minute touchdown from Steve Hall had Leigh in trouble at 16-0 down.

But two tries in the final three minutes gave Leigh the encouragement they needed to make a fight of it.

Tau Liku ploughed over out wide and then Patel swooped for a crucial touchdown after Cougars' full-back Matt Foster lost possesion under pressure behind his own line. Paul Wingfield added one goal to leave Leigh just six points adrift at the break.

Just six minutes into the second half and Leigh were back on level terms. Hadcroft and Liku made all the running up the left before Dean sent Whittle charging between the uprights for an equalising six-pointer.

The Cougars edged in front again with a Kris Kirk try but despite

having Keighley on the back foot, Leigh had to wait until the 79th minute to get the draw they deserved when Purtill found a way through to touchdown out wide.

LEIGH: Donlan; Wingfield P, Hadcroft, Purtill, Dickinson; Patel, Dean; Street, Murray, Whittle, Costello, Liku, Fairclough. Subs (all played): Wingfield C, Arkwright, Platt, Ingram, Jenkins, Norman.

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