By Matt Lawton
July 13 2003

Leigh survived an early scare to secure a fairly comfortable victory away to National League One title rivals Rochdale Hornets, with the victory being sealed by a late Neil Turley drop goal in front of over 1,300 at Spotland. Leigh returned to the scene of last weekend's Arriva Trains Cup Final defeat to Salford to face title and local rivals Rochdale Hornets and came away with the two points, though the seven point scoring margin suggests the match was closer than it actually was.

Both sides went into the game desperate for victory to keep up the pace at the top of the league and that ensured that the supporters present were to witness a very good game with both teams intent on victory.

The hosts made a lightning start and took a very early lead through second rower David Larder who outpaced the Leigh cover to go in at the left-hand corner to shock the Leigh fans amassed in large numbers at that particular end of Spotland.

This rattled the Leigh side into action and they quickly were back on level terms when England international hooker Paul Rowley broke through a gap and suddenly found himself over the line for a four pointer, which was converted to six by full back Neil Turley in front of the sticks.

However, Rochdale are a side reknowned for not giving up easily, hence their lofty league position, and they soon recovered to retake the lead when Hornets full back Paul Owen finished off an impressively scintilating passing move for an excellently worked try which was converted by former Swinton Lions star Mick Nanyn to put the Hornets into a 10-6 lead. Rochdale were playing very well at this point and ex-Centurions John Hamilton was playing like a man possessed, tackling anything that moved in a cherry and white shirt. Thankfully for the Centurions though, Paul Terzis' preferred option at hooker, Paul Rowley, had a superb game and showed he has fully recovered from the broken hand he picked up in the victory at Dewsbury three weeks ago.

Leigh then again came back into the game and once again pulled level when Captain Fantastic Adam Bristow, once again having a top-class game, went over for a try converted by Turley.

The Centurions pulled clear with a try from centre Phil Kendrick in the right-hand corner. The try especially meant a lot to Kendrick who had squandered a huge try-scoring chance only a few minutes earlier when he knocked the ball on with the line at his mercy following an excellent passing move. Turley missed the conversion but Leigh still held a 16-10 lead come the half time hooter.

The second half suprisingly didn't contain a single try for either side with Rochdale scoring a penalty goal through Mick Nanyn and Leigh doing likewise via the boot of Neil Turley, who also popped over a late drop goal.

Despite this, Leigh could've comfortably won it in the second half with Sonny Nickle having a try disallowed for a David Bradbury forward pass by resident Leigh enemy number one, match referee Colin Morris. However, this wasn't quite as unexpected as an inexplicable mistake from former Leeds Rhinos winger Leroy Rivett who, after sprinting 60 yards to outpace the whole Rochdale team got over the line but knocked-on when trying to ground the ball despite there being no opposing players nearby. This could've proved costly but thankfully it didn't and the victory was sealed by a Neil Turley who made up for a previous attempt which sailed wide of the posts, along with a drop goal attempt from Australian stand off Patrick Weisner.

The win will be of much relief to the Leigh coaching staff who pinpointed the game as a huge banana skin and they will be looking to take the same form into another tough away trip next weekend when Leigh make the long journey to West Cumbria to take on Whitehaven Warriors.