2008 Season Reports: LEIGH 26 BLACKPOOL 6

LEIGH CENTURIONS 26
BLACKPOOL PANTHERS 6

DAVE PARKINSON at Hilton Park

“I’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day, but that was pretty ugly.”

Those were the words of Centurion coach Paul Rowley after the Centurions laboured to a 26-6 win over a side that hasn’t won a competitive fixture since July 2006. That long losing run may have continued at Hilton Park but National League Two battlers Blackpool made Leigh work hard, restricting them to just five tries.

Rowley continued “We maintained our 100% record through the group stages but we didn’t really win in the style that we wanted too. Credit to Blackpool, they muscled up and made it difficult for us and I can see them troubling a lot of sides in National League Two this season. I think it was doubly difficult today owing to the amount of former Leigh players in the Blackpool ranks – they all had something to prove.”

After taking a 5th minute lead when an unsuccessful intercept by Damian Munro was pushed into Leigh hands and Steve Maden and Aaron Smith combined for Toa Kohe-Love to score, Blackpool tightened up and kept the Centurions scoreless for the next 34 minutes. Blackpool’s spirit soon became evident as Andy Hobson and Aaron Smith spilled possession in strong tackles near the line. Early on the threat of Mark Roberts and Adam Rudd terrorised the Panthers right flank but they recovered and the former Leigh forward trio of Pete Fairhurst, Darryl Kay and John Boland were outstanding alongside industrious hooker Jon Clough.

The Panthers managed to track back to deny Leigh on a couple more occasions before a flash of brilliance in the last minute of the half brought a second try for Kohe-Love. Martin Keavney fired a pass out and the centre showed all his top level pedigree to accelerate into the gap before dancing round a defender and carrying another over the line. Lee Marsh tagged on the extras and all of a sudden it was 10-0.

Leigh were penalised for offside from the kick-off to the second half and the Panthers turned the screw before former Rochdale second row Kris Ratcliffe showed great strength to burst over for a Jonny Leather converted score.

The Centurions reply came quickly when the brilliant hooker Dave McConnell split the defence and was able to flick a one handed pass to supporting loose forward Smith who sailed over the line from 15 metres. Surprisingly Marsh fluffed the kickable conversion, but Leigh then moved the ball at pace; Maden feeding Chris Giles only for Leather to injure himself in stopping the former Rochdale winger.

The Panthers again went on the attack with Martin Gambles an increasing influence. He orchestrated much of the attack before the gamebreaking play in the 62nd minute. The Panthers roared forward at the Leigh line before youngster Craig Tunstead spilled the ball, directly into the path of Tony Stewart. He then ran 60 metres with men in pursuit before offloading to Keavney who ran home the score. Marsh converted and then upped his point contribution to ten with an individual show and go from ten metres that left two defenders grasping at air The extras made it a twenty point advantage and despite the plucky Panthers best efforts, that was that.

Panthers try scorer Ratcliffe reflected after the game, “Martin Crompton has instilled a new belief into the players. We felt that we were unlucky to be ten points down at half-time and made them work hard after scoring early in the second half. They are one of the top sides in their league and we heard they may have fielded a weakened side but from what I could see, only two or three were missing. I think we can look forward with confidence.”

GAMEBREAKER: Martin Keavney’s try after Craig Tunstead spilled the ball at the other end of the field made the gap too wide for the Panthers to bridge.

GAMESTAR: Dave McConnell, was dynamic out of dummy half and just edged out the ever consistent Aaron Smith.

CENTURIONS
1 Steve Maden
2 Dave Alstead
3 Adam Rudd
4 Toa Kohe-Love
5 Chris Giles
6 Lee Marsh
7 Martin Keavney
8 Andy Hobson
9 Dave McConnell
10 John Hill
11 Mark Roberts
12 Jimmy Taylor
13 Aaron Smith
Subs (all used)
14 Tony Stewart
15 Nathan McAvoy
16 Chris Hill
17 Mike Morrison

Tries: Kohe-Love (5, 39), Smith (47), Keavney (62), Marsh (70)
Goals: Marsh 3/5
Field goal:
On Report: (TIME) – offence
Sin bin: (TIME) – offence
Dismissal: (TIME) – offence

PANTHERS
1 Damien Munro
2 David Kirby
3 Eddie Kilgannon
4 Carl Jones
5 Jonny Leather
6 Deon Duell
7 Martin Gambles
8 Jon Warriner
9 Jon Clough
10 Pete Fairhurst
11 Darryl Kay
12 Kris Ratcliffe
13 John Boland
Subs (all used)
14 Craig Tunstead
15 Mike Wallace
16 Danny Barton
17 Gareth Jones

Try: Ratcliffe (41)
Goals: Leather 1/1
On Report: (TIME) – offence
Sin bin: (TIME) – offence
Dismissal: (TIME) – offence

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match

Centurions: Dave McConnell
Panthers: Jon Clough

Penalty count: 10-10
Half-time: 10-0
Referee: Paul Carr
Attendance: 1,721

SCORING SEQUENCE: 4-0; 10-0; 10-6; 14-6; 20-6; 26-6.