Leigh Centurions 44, Hunslet Warriors 4

ONE of the first people into the Warriors dressing room just after 4.30pm yesterday was Centurions coach Keith Latham.

The Leigh boss wanted to add his personal congratulations to the standing ovation the brave Warriors had just received out on the pitch from both sets of fans.

"They were a credit to the amateur game," Latham said: "Our lads certainly knew they'd been in a match."

Latham, who has seen all his pre-season plans wrecked by injury, was simply glad to get this Silk Cut Challenge Cup third round tie out of the way.

"We've not learned anything from the game," he pointed out. "It's just one I'm happy is done and dusted."

Although Leigh won at a canter at the end and were never in any danger of losing, the first step along the road towards Wembley wasn't as smooth as it should have been.

Defensively they were comfortable in soaking virtually anything the Warriors threw at them but in attack they looked laboured and unsure.

They did manage to score nine tries but they should have been well into double figures.

David Ingram was twice brought back for marginal forward passes while the Leigh centre bombed one try and Tim Street and Andy Fairclough contrived to spill another.

"We should have finished far better than we did," Latham conceded. "They were elementary mistakes that we can't afford to repeat against better opposition." The Yorkshire League side restricted Leigh to just two tries in the first 20 minutes - and managed to score one outstanding effort themselves.

Nick Jenkins had already put Leigh 4-0 up when the menacing Herbie Moore broke Leigh on half way and made all the running for Glen Cunningham's try.

For a few minutes the Warriors were in dreamland but slowly Leigh's class began to tell and 4-4 became 22-4 by half time with tries from Ingram, Tim Street and a couple of trademark plunges over the line from Tau Liku.

The second half followed much the same pattern with Leigh holding off a strong early Warriors surge before creating chance after chance themselves.

But they were restricted to just four more touchdowns, two of them in the last three minutes.

Winger Barry Burgess picked up the first and top prop Andy Pucill charged through for another before youngsters Scott Hilton and Mark Burrows scored late on.

LEIGH: Donlan, Burgess, Ingram, Nixon, Burrows; Fairclough, Wilkinson; Street, Jenkins, Pucill, Liku, Costello, Gunning. Subs (all used): Garcis, Smith, Hilton, O'Loughlin.

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