Spirited Town surprise NL1 Leigh
Last updated 11:29, Tuesday, 05 February 2008
Few people gave Town a chance at Hilton Park but a-never-say-die effort saw Workington take the lead twice inside the first half hour.
This came after prop Ryan Benjafield was forced to leave the field with injury inside the first five minutes.
By that time the Centurions led 4-0 through an unconverted try from former Bradford centre Nathan McAvoy.
Workington conjured up a superb reply when swift passing from half-backs Matt Ashe and Carl Forber released Dexter Miller down the right after 13 minutes.
Miller moved the ball back inside for the impressive Rob Lunt to canter over the line. Forber struck the upright with his conversion attempt to edge Town in front.
Leigh roared back into the lead through Chris Giles and a conversion from Ian Watson but Workington weren’t out of contention with Miller causing plenty of problems for the Centurions left flank.
Another charge saw Miller break the line only for the ball to go loose. Referee Paul Carr decided a Leigh hand had forced the loss and waved play on as new signing Iain Marsh surged downfield.
Tom Armstrong continued the move and though Leigh chased back Lunt showed great awareness to claim his second try with Forber adding a magnificent touchline goal.
This did enough to rattle the Centurions but it was only a Town error that helped them back in to the lead.
After losing the ball deep inside their own half, Leigh pushed the ball wide from a scrum and McAvoy dived in for his second try.
Forber was then unlucky to find himself sinbinned for holding down and Leigh punished a short defensive line with former Whitehaven wing Steve Maden collecting a Dennis Moran kick to the corner.
Trailing by eight points at the break, Town set the tone at the start of the second half with bone jarring tackles and commitment.
With Mark McCully impressive at the back and the tireless John Warringer being joined by Garry Purdham and Taani Lavulavu, Workington were still in with a shout.
Eventually, an opportunity presented itself and Town marched inside the hosts 20-metre zone before Marsh showed power and strength to get through three tackles and touch down.
Unfortunately for Forber he was wide with the conversion.
The final quarter saw Leigh stretch away with tries from Tony Stewart and Adam Rudd, both converted by Ian Watson but nothing could quell the mood of Town boss Dave Rotherham.
He said: “At 12-10 up I was thinking rather than it just being a pre-season exercise, we could actually win this game.
“There were just a couple of childish errors that gave Leigh the positions to score and I was pretty annoyed by that.
“But I thought we competed in every department with them today. We spoiled and they made a lot of errors because of our good defence. Ultimately I felt that their class showed in the last 15 minutes of each half.”
Town: McCully, Armstrong, Marsh, Routledge, Mossop, Ashe, Forber, Benjafield, Burgess, Warringer, Beaumont, Miller, R Lunt.
Replacements: Kmet, Tunstall, Gorman, Lavulavu, Robinson, Purdham, Dalton.
Crowd: 850.
