Two minutes away from victory.

Leigh entertained their very old friends and adversaries from Rochdale yesterday, on the back of a heavy defeat to Bowdon two weeks ago. They so very nearly came away with a win, in what proved to be an excellent arm-wrestle, on a beautiful autumn day, at Round Ash Park.

The much bigger Rochdale side bossed the game for the first twenty-five minutes but a dogged Leigh defence kept them out, time after time, to thwart their efforts.

Then, around the thirtieth minute, a cracking break by Calvin Crompton, who made a rare but very welcome appearance yesterday, got Jamie King into space, out on the left wing. Jamie made ground and quickly returned the ball to Calvin, on his inside, for Calvin, in turn, to find the ever supporting Alex Leadbetter on his shoulder, for him to step his way over the Rochdale line for a truly well executed try, which caught Rochdale napping. A great try from nowhere. Rob Drake, unfortunately, narrowly missed with his conversion attempt.

Rochdale soon pulled themselves together again and slotted a penalty in the thirty third minute to take the sides off, at the break, with Leigh leading by five points to three.

The second half saw Rochdale replicate their early first half domination and constant pressure resulted in them driving over, from close to the Leigh line, in the opening few minutes, for an unconverted try.

Leigh, however, bounced back immediately and a good break by flanker Charlie Wood, found winger Joe Harrison, on hand, for him to finish off a lovely passage of play, with an unconverted try, wide out on the right hand side of the pitch.

The remainder of the half found both sides pressing hard for the win and the Leigh defence during this period was nothing short of heroic, with wave after wave of Rochdale attacks being stopped dead in their tracks.

Unfortunately, for Leigh, they went down to fourteen men for the last ten minutes and Rochdale gathered some momentum as a result. They eventually set themselves up close to the Leigh line for a couple of final assaults but again they were courageously repelled on both occasions, so decided to take the next best option, which was to go for a drop goal, which they did convert with two minutes to go to snatch victory.

Final score Leigh 10 Rochdale 11.

This was a very much improved performance from Leigh, who battled for every minute of this match and were very unlucky not to hang on for what would have been a hard earned win.

Next week, Leigh entertain their good friends, West Park (St. Helens), at Leigh in an old fashioned ‘Friendly’. K.O. 2.15 p.m.