So near but yet so far……

Leigh welcomed second placed Bowdon to Hand Lane yesterday, hoping to reverse the 74 – 16 defeat in Cheshire last November and they were very unlucky not to. This young Leigh squad has worked very hard this season and their hard work has started to pay dividends. Yesterday’s performance was, arguably, their best of the season to date.

The game got off to a frantic start, with both sides throwing the ball around but it was Bowdon who took the lead, through a well worked overlap down their right wing, which produced an unconverted try after ten minutes.

A Rob Drake penalty on thirty minutes, pulled back three points for Leigh but two minutes later they took the lead, when Eliot Liku picked up and drove over the Bowdon line, from a scrum, to score a try that was very well converted from wide out by Rob Drake.

Leigh 10 Bowdon 5.

Bowdon soon regained their composure and worked their way down the park to go over for another unconverted try, just before the break, to take the sides off at half time, with the score standing at ten points each.

Early pressure from Leigh in the second half soon saw them retake the lead, through a Rob Drake penalty but it was following a long period of excellent and dogged defence by Leigh that they stretched their lead.

A brilliant run from winger, Jake Westwell, set up the platform for a Drake brothers extravaganza, with Rob putting his brother Jonny away down the right wing, for him to scorch away and score a well deserved try under the Bowdon sticks, which Rob easily converted in the sixty fifth minute. An unexpected but thoroughly deserved Leigh victory suddenly seemed to be within reach.

Leigh 20 Bowdon 10.

Bowdon, however, regrouped and patiently went through their phases. They were quickly rewarded with an unconverted try, near to the right hand corner flag, to set up a nail-biting last five minutes.

They immediately came back, from the kick off, to surge down the pitch to score a try wide out on the left, which was a killer blow to Leigh who had worked so hard in this match and thought they had done enough to win. The well-struck conversion from the touchline added the extra two points that Bowdon required for victory and left Leigh to contemplate what might have been. They had been within a whisker of causing an upset but in the end, they had to settle for a losing bonus point.

Final score Leigh 20 Bowdon 22.

This was another whole team effort with every squad member fully playing his part and they will be sorely disappointed not to have come away with four points for the shift that they all put in.

Next week, Leigh travel away to face 5th placed Rochdale and will be hoping to reverse the 11 – 10 defeat that they suffered at home last November.