Rowley puts Leigh in positive mood (From The Bolton News)

Rowley puts Leigh in positive mood

3:55pm Thursday 2nd July 2009 in

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LEIGH Centurions are looking forward to the return of former coach Ian Millward for the 2010 season but they have a more pressing engagement tonight when they take on Halifax at the Shay for the second time in a month.

The last encounter was a Northern Rail Cup quarter final, which the Centurions lost 54-16 to an in-form Halifax side.

Despite the weight of that defeat, current coach Paul Rowley saw encouraging signs and returns to West Yorkshire confident his players can put on a better show after a run of four successive losses.

“We know that we have more to offer than what we have been showing,” Rowley said in the wake of the Whitehaven defeat.

“We can hopefully kick on from it.

“We had a gameplan to beat Halifax last time and in spells we did well, unfortunately for us we got undone by a few quality players.”

Halifax suffered a shock defeat to Gateshead last week and Rowley is aiming to keep the heat on the Shay men “We’ll try and put more pressure on them.” Rowley said. “Maybe they’ll start doubting themselves. There was talk at one point of them not losing a game. You put yourself up there to be knocked down.

“We pretty much know what Halifax will be about and they are a very much, off the cuff team because they have such good players in key areas. They go out with a gameplan many a time and much of their play comes off the likes of Beswick, Black and Penkywicz and they play off the back of it.

“But their defensive line isn’t impregnable so our best form of defence will be to attack and keep hold of the ball.”

Tonight’s game also throws up an interesting clash for Tom Hemingway. The Centurions’ recent loan signing was at the Shay on a similar agreement earlier in the season and Rowley is pleased with the Huddersfield half-back’s progress. “Tom’s really happy at the moment and has settled in,” said the Leigh coach.