Long time coming but well worth the wait.

A determined Leigh squad set off for Altrincham yesterday with only one thing on their minds – a win and they came away with a well deserved victory against seventh placed Altrincham Kersal.

Early Leigh pressure resulted in a penalty for the visitors and they were unlucky not to take the lead when the penalty attempt by Elliott Ryan bounced back off the crossbar.

Unfortunately, Altrincham worked their way back up the pitch and after 3 reset scrums were rewarded with a pushover try scored by their No. 8, Jonny Bishop, an ex-Leigh player who came through our age grade system.

The next twenty minutes was an arm wrestle with Leigh getting the upper hand on 35 minutes, when Tom Baker got the ball to ground following a driving maul, for a try converted brilliantly from wide out by Elliott Ryan to level the score. This was quickly followed by another Leigh score on the stroke of half time, by Sean MacDonald, who ran onto a peach of a ball from Ryan McKinstry to dot the ball down under the Altrincham sticks for a try converted again by Elliott Ryan.

Half time Altrincham Kersal 7 Leigh 14.

Leigh continued to dominate in the second half and were soon rewarded with another penalty, which was duly dispatched again by the trusty boot of Ryan.

The lads were now on a roll and they augmented their lead on 50 minutes when scrum half, David Wood, dropped off Matt Newton, to rampage his way over near to their opponents posts for another try converted by Elliott Ryan.

Leigh’s domination and Altrincham’s humiliation continued when Elliott Ryan stepped up to the plate again after 65 minutes to slot another penalty to extend their lead to 20 points.

Altrincham worked hard to close the gap and threw everything they had at Leigh in the last 15 minutes. Their efforts were rewarded after 70 minutes when a driving maul produced a converted try for them and in the last minute they added another unconverted try when they engineered an overlap on the right hand side.

This was a thoroughly deserved victory for the Leigh lads who all worked themselves to a standstill and produced some exhilarating rugby along the way.

This victory leaves Leigh second from the bottom of the League four points clear of fellow strugglers, Widnes.

Next week, Leigh entertain third placed Wilmslow at Round Ash Park and on this form they could well produce another shock for the bookmakers.

Final score Altrincham Kersal 19 Leigh 27.