Leigh 12 Hunslet 44 LEIGH'S slide down the second division table continued as promotion chasing Hunslet celebrated their first league win at Hilton Park for 30 years.

Coach Eric Hughes rang the changes after last week's defeat against Carlisle and fielded a young side, with Safraz Patel, Mark Kay and Paul Kelly all getting their first taste of first team action. And Hughes felt that Hunslet's greater strength and experience proved crucial.

"Physically we weren't equipped to deal with them, especially at the play the balls," he said. "But promotion went out of the window a long time ago for us, so there's nothing lost in throwing the youngsters in.

"They will all benefit from the experience but in reality they need a lot more time and work. The situation the club is in means that we're asking boys to do a man's job. It will take time and they'll learn the hard way."

Hunslet had hat-trick heroes in wily hooker Graham Southernwood and impressive Aussie stand-off Tim Murphy. They both had field days as Hunslet, 16-12 ahead at half-time, ran away with the game in the second half. Another Aussie, loose forward Matt Lambert, was another impressive performer with his creative skills.

Leigh fought back with spirit from an early Southernwood try to take a 12-6 lead midway through the first-half. David Ingram seized on a loose ball to race over from 60 metres and then skipper Tim Street, who often fought a lone battle up front, superbly released the ball in a two man tackle for Rob Ball to cross and Dean Purtill to add his second conversion.

But when Street was sin-binned by Aussie referee Tim Manders, whose decisions and lack of control incensed the home crowd, Southernwood dummied over for the equalising score. Right on half-time Murphy sidestepped his way through to give the visitors the lead.

When Leigh's defence fell for the three card trick and Southernwood plunged over from a tap penalty five minutes after the re-start, Hunslet saw daylight. As Leigh's challenge faded, sub Des Maea Murphy, with two tries in a three minute spell, and David Plange all crossed and full-back Simon Wilson took his tally to six goals.

It wasn't all one-way traffic for Purtill, Ingram and Ball each had tries disallowed but Leigh finished a well beaten side. "We desperately missed our experienced players like David Lyon and Jimmy Veikoso today," said Hughes. "The longer the game went on the more our inexperience became a problem."

LEIGH: Hill; Sarsfield (Kay 49), Cheetham, Hadcroft, Purtill, Ingram, Brown (Patel 57); Street, Quigley, Conway, Marsh (Liku 26, Kelly 61), Ball, Daniel. Attendance: 1.071. RUGBY LEAGUE

Stones Super League: Halifax 25 Warrington 18, Leeds 26 Oldham 28, Workington 14 Paris 10.

First division: Batley 12 Rochdale 26, Featherstone 31 Widnes 14, Hull 22 Dewsbury 6, Keighley 10 Huddersfield 37, Salford 38 Whitehaven 12.

Second division: Carlisle 20 York 19, Chorley 10 Bramley 15, Doncaster 4 Swinton 25, Leigh 12 Hunslet 44, Prescot 4 Hull K R 68, South Wales 48 Barrow 16.

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