Leigh Centurions 26 Dewsbury Rams 2

9:56pm Sunday 30th March 2008

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LEIGH Centurions finally broke their duck in National League One with a scrappy victory.

After back-to-back easter defeats, the Centurions were under pressure to get their league campaign up and running but, despite picking up their first three points, team boss Darren Shaw was far from satisfied.

Shaw was critical of referee Jamie Leahy in a game of 24 penalties, saying the stop-start nature of the game badly affected Leigh's flow.

"The stoppages didn't help either side but I thought that we were hindered quite badly," he said.

Shaw also blamed Leigh's poor decision making as one of the reasons for his side's stuttering performance.

"We created enough chances and had enough territory to have scored far more than the five tries that we did," he added.

"The only aspect of the game I was pleased with was our defence which worked extremely hard to keep Dewsbury tryless."

Until stoppage time at the end of the first half Leigh had only managed one try. A set move from a tap penalty saw Ian Watson set up Aaron Smith for a six pointer that wiped out Dewsbury's early 2-0 lead.

Leigh wasted several chances until Dennis Moran picked out Dave Alstead to go over in the corner. Adam Rudd set up Nathan McAvoy to power over for a try that gave the Centurions a 14-2 lead.

It was only when prop Chris Hill smashed his way over after smart work from Dave McConnell that Leigh had the match in the bag.

Key man McConnell deservedly picked up his team's final try when he drove over from close range to give Watson his third successful kick.