Eccles don’t ‘get their cake and eat it’.

Leigh welcomed Eccles to Hand Lane yesterday and were bolstered by the return of Chris Boyle, Elliott Ryan and David Wood to the squad.

The Hand Lane outfit got off to a brilliant start, on seven minutes, when Jimmy Wilkinson latched onto a loose pass from Eccles, to intercept and scorch over for a try, which was converted by Elliott Ryan.

This was quickly followed by another interception, this time by young scrum half, Alex Leadbetter, who scampered over for his first try for the First Team. Elliott Ryan again added the extras.

Eccles, however, were quick to respond through a well executed, converted try following excellent work by their back division.

Leigh bounced back quickly from this, when Ollie Shepherd intercepted another loose Eccles offload, to dot the ball down under the Eccles posts, to give Elliott Ryan an easy conversion.

The final score of the first half came from the boot of Elliott Ryan, when he slotted over a penalty from in front of the Eccles posts, to take the teams off at half time, with the score Leigh 24 Eccles 7.

Leigh got off to a flying start in the second half, when No. 8 Chris Boyle, produced a well measured chip through for left winger, Kieran Duffy, to pounce on over the Eccles line, wide out on the left, for an unconverted try.

The remainder of the second half was all about Eccles pressing and Leigh defending. The Leigh defence, in this half, was a magnificent team effort and they repelled wave after wave of Eccles attacks.

Eccles, however, were eventually rewarded for their unstinting efforts in the last minute, when they breached the Leigh defence to record an unconverted try.

Final score Leigh 29 Eccles 12.

This victory has now lifted Leigh to 10th position in the League, above Altrincham Kersal, West Park, Eccles and Vale of Lune and they will travel away to Altrincham Kersal next week, in what has to be a ‘must win’ game, to keep their season in North One West on track.