Leigh 32 Chorley 26
By MIKE HULME
FRUSTRATED coach Eric Hughes looked on in astonishment as Leigh almost contrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
After opening up a commanding 32-14 lead midway through the second half Leigh should have gone on to wrap up a landslide victory.
But instead they handed the initiative back to revitalised Chorley who swept in for two quickfire tries from Milton Finney and Neil Allday to put the game back on a knife-edge.
And had it not been for two try-saving tackles by David Lyon in his final game before switching codes with Orrell RU, Chorley would have been celebrating a rare league double.
"Total frustration," was the brief summing up from Hughes. "We got ourselves in a position where we had the game well won but then just switched off. We let Chorley back in with a couple of daft tries and had the game lasted much longer we'd have lost."
It was that close with Leigh doing their best to waste Jimmy Veikoso's first half hat-trick and Dave Ingram's double strike. Veikoso's treble contained some contrasting scores. It began after a smooth inter-change of passes with Lyon; continued when he cheekily stole the ball from an astonished Allday and concluded when he supported Dean Purtill's touchline dash.
But Chorley kept in contention with tries in quick succession by Ray Wareing and Allday. Stewart Francis added both conversions and an early second half penalty to leave the visitors just six points adrift.
A two-try burst by the predatory Ingram, who has now scored 17 tries in his last nine games, put Leigh back in control.
Veikoso turned provider to lay the first on a plate while Ingram sliced through unaided from a scrum move to sweep in for his second. Purtill continued his impressive kicking form by landing his sixth goal from seven shots.
LEIGH: Lyon; Burgess, Veikoso, Wright, Purtill; Ingram, O'Loughlin (Patel 72); Street, Quigley, Liku (McGughan 32), Ball (Hill 51), Cain, Mason. Sub not used: Hadcroft. Attendance 1,038.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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