Defeat by mid-table Bramley and the end of their 100 per cent home league record was hard enough to stomach but to then lose a vital player through injury and another to a rival club, it was almost too much for coach Ian Lucas to take.

The future of summer signing Shaun Brown is in serious doubt with the play-maker breaking his arm less than 20 minutes into his comeback match after 11 weeks out with a similar injury.

And Leigh are also resigned to losing number one target Ali Davys who has agreed terms with first division Salford.

Leigh were resigned to the worst after the match. "It looks like another break in the same place as before," revealed Lucas. "It's a tragedy." Lucas has also had to take it on the chin after losing Davys to Salford after coming within a whisker of landing the star performer for the Cook Islands in the recent Emerging Nations World Cup.

"Ali's been offered far better terms by Salford than we could afford. It's a big disappointment to me personally but you can't blame the lad for getting a better deal for himself," added Lucas.

The only good news for the Hilton Park boss is that his other two Cook Islands targets, centre Sonny Shepherd and front rower Bobby Hunter have agreed to join Leigh.

"We will be faxing copies of their contracts to the Cook Islands today. Once we get them back and approved by the Rugby League, we can apply for work permits. Hopefully they could be here in about five weeks."

And how Leigh need them after tamely going down to a hard-working, but hardly fearsome, Bramley side.

Rarely have Leigh been so subdued in front of their own fans but such was the Hilton Park side's performance that it was hardly surprising that Bramley won at Leigh for the first time in 58 years! With little or no forward drive, Leigh lost the early initiative that Andy Cheetham's smartly taken try had given them.

Once Bramley had got in front, their self-belief became more evident while Leigh fumbled and finally faltered.

There appeared to be little method to Leigh's play; driving aimlessly and mishandling whenever the ball was moved wider. Even their three tries, two to Cheetham and one to Jason O'Loughlin, came as a result of individual excellence rather than organised teamwork.

Bramley deserved their fifth win in a row and owed a lot to on-loan stand-off Damion Pickles with collected 16 points from two tries and four goals.

LEIGH: Wynne, Hill, Davies, O'Loughlin, Cheetham; Wilkinson, Brown (Sarsfield 27); Liku, Bannister, Stazicker, Perigo, McGughan, Jukes (Costello 53). Attendance: 1536.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.