Leigh beat fellow strugglers Rochdale with a great performance

Leigh entertained fellow strugglers, Rochdale, at Hand Lane yesterday in what was targeted as a ‘must win’ game, in their quest for survival in North One West – and succeeded.

Rochdale were soon on the score-sheet when they slotted an early penalty, after two minutes, to take the lead by three points.

Leigh fought back strongly and after an intense period of pressure near to the Rochdale line, they won an attacking scrum and No. 8, Calvin Crompton, picked the ball up from the base to barge his way over for an excellent try, which was well converted by Elliott Ryan, from wide out on the left.

This try was quickly followed by another, on the stroke of half time, when Rob Drake worked his magic and dummied over for another of his trademark scores, to dot the ball down next to the left hand corner flag, for an unconverted try, to take the sides off at the interval with Leigh leading by 12 points to 3.

The second half was an end-to-end spectacle with both sides running and tackling themselves to a standstill.

Leigh extended their lead, on sixty minutes, when Rochdale were penalised for knocking the ball down deliberately and Elliott Ryan stepped up to the mark to add the three points.

Leigh should have put the bonus point out of Rochdale’s reach in the final few minutes, by kicking another penalty under the Rochdale sticks but unwisely, in hindsight, chose to opt for an attacking scrum, which unfortunately produced no score.

Rochdale, however, to their enormous credit, worked hard after this and got to the other end of the pitch and several assaults on the Leigh line eventually produced a try for them, in the final play of the game, to earn them a losing bonus point.

Final score Leigh 15 Rochdale 8.

This was an excellent performance by all of the Leigh squad who, once more, really put their bodies on the line to achieve this well deserved victory. The Rochdale Officials chose Alex Leadbetter as ‘Man of the Match’ for his outstanding performance.

Next week, Leigh are again at home, against third placed Wilmslow, in another challenging match in their quest for survival.