Leigh Centurions 42 York 16

JUST a week after being booed off following a miserable home defeat by South Wales, Leigh were given a standing ovation to mark their seven-try demolition of York.

It was a remarkable turnaround from the previous week. Leigh controlled most aspects of the game with authority and it almost brought a smile from hard-to-please coach Eric Hughes!

"Far, far, better," enthused Hughes. "The response from the players after the South Wales performance has been really pleasing.

"I experimented by switching a few players round, and by and large they worked."

The only disappointment for Hughes was the way Leigh let the game slip in the second half. They were 28-4 up and coasting until the sin-binning of substitute Shaun Brown and then Alan Mason, knocked them out of their stride.

York took advantage of their numerical superiority and picked up tries through Mark Cain and David Smith. Leigh's only response was a Dean Purtill penalty and at 30-16 they were wobbling.

"We did get a bit ragged in that short spell but we soon picked up the threads and once we'd put the basics right there was never any doubt we would win," added Hughes.

The return of Brown after a centenary season wrecked by two broken arms, was particularly pleasing for Hughes.

Despite earning himself a sin-binning for lying on at his first tackle of the game, Brown sharpened Leigh up in the last 20 minutes. He laid on a sensational 50-yarder for David Lyon and then played a big part in sending Purtill over in the corner in the last minute. Purtill had a strange match. He missed his first four kicks at goal, then landed seven from seven, including two from the touchline and picked up his a last minute try for an 18 points haul.

Purtill had already had one try disallowed before Mason's quick thinking saw him shoot over from a tap penalty to give Leigh an early lead.

Lyon, Jonathan Quigley and Alan Hadcroft all picked up first half tries as Leigh's domination was complete. Their only slip came when York winger Keith Mawer slipped in at the corner.

A Purtill penalty early in the second half made it 22-4 and when the outstanding Paul Daniel put in another powerful surge, Shaun Bannister had the easiest of tasks in sending Rob Ball diving in.

After overcoming their brief attack of the jitters, Leigh finished with a flourish as Brown's cleverly disguised pass gave Lyon the chance to stride through from 50 yards.

Brown was on hand again just before the end, supplying the scoring pass for Purtill who has now scored 58 points in just four games.

LEIGH: Lyon; Hill, Veikoso, Hadcroft, Purtill; O'Loughlin, Quigley (Brown 54); Street, Bannister, Cain, Daniel, Ball (McGughan), Mason. Subs not used: Cheetham and McCulley. Att: 968.

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