Leigh Centurions 30 Keighley Cougars 12: YOU can bet your bottom dollar that Darren Abram won't send his team out again without a game plan.

Abram experimented by leaving the pre-match planning and organisation to his senior players - and then probably wished he hadn't.

Leigh came up with their worst performance of the season, an error-strewn 80 minutes that will have done nothing to entice the floating fans back to Hilton Park.

"I wanted the players to organise the game themselves," Abram admitted. "It was important for me to see who could handle that sort of responsibility and who couldn't. I think the answer was in that performance."

Leigh went through the entire reportoire of basic errors. Keighley, with only one previous league win, could hardly believe their luck that they'd not be blown out of the water.

"We tried to force the ball too much," Abram said. "The one thing the performance has taught me is that I've learned something about my players."

It also showed that if you take a few key individuals out of the side, Leigh are nowhere near as effective.

There was no Percival, Swann, Larder, Maden or Knox and the Centurions were a poorer side for their absences.

The pack was nowhere near as dominant is it has been previously and as a consequence halves Duffy and Martyn weren't able to have their usual influence.

The usually effervescent Duffy and Rowley had strangely quite games, Martyn showed some wonderful touches at times but blotted his copybook on a few occasions as well. In the end Leigh relied heavily on the guiding hand of skipper Ian Knott whose two tries were to ultimately prove invaluable.

New signing Rob Smyth was given his debut after 54 minutes but with Leigh throwing possession away as if it was going out of fashion, he hardly had a meaningful touch.

Academy winger Gary Rourke followed up his encouraging debut at Rochdale with another solid effort and was rewarded with his first senior try after 12 minutes when Leigh's quick movement of the ball from right to left gave Danny Halliwell the simple task if getting his wingman in at the corner.

Neil Turley's touchline goal chalked another off the six goals he needed to become the game's quickest player to 100 goals in a season. But in keeping with Leigh's overall malaise, Turley finished the match stranded on 98, having failed with three of his six attempts.

Keighley's early indication that they were in no mood to simply roll over was underlined when they hit back almost immediately, Craig Parker exposing some flimsy Leigh tryline defence to force himself over and give Craig Nipperess a simple conversion.

Two tries in three minutes saw Leigh open up a 16-6 advantage. Martyn produced a short drop off pass for Halliwell to go steaming through from close range and then Knott bowled over three defenders to touch down after he'd hit a short ball from Rowley at full tilt.

When Martyn sold an outrageous double dummy to glide through for a try just 90 seconds into the second half, the sun-bathing crowd sat back expecting the dyke to burst.

It didn't. Most of that was due to Leigh's shocking execution when within striking distance and some to the Cougar's tenacious defending. Keighley knew they couldn't win it, but they weren't going to lose it heavily either.

With only a 50 per cent completion rate in the second half, Leigh gave Keighley far more ball than they could have expected. And what possession Leigh did have, they didn't do much with it.

Leigh's cause was helped when Karl Smith got himself sin-binned for deliberate obstruction. Keighley's creaking defence cracked twice while down to 12. Knott picked up and drove over from dummy half and then Duffy sent Rowley racing in for a 30-6 lead.

With a quarter of the game still to play, Leigh had ample opportunity to increase the points margin and give Turley his record.

Instead they fumbled and bumbled their way through the final 20 minutes and the final hooter, when it came, was a blessed relief. Right on the bell roly-poly prop Jason Clegg managed to squeeze his considerable frame between the uprights for a try goaled by Nipperess.

Scorers - Leigh: Tries - Knott (28, 53), Rourke (12), Halliwell (25), Martyn (42), Rowley (59). Gls: Turley 3/6.

Keighley: Tries - Parker (17), Clegg (80). Gls: Nipperess 2/2.

Leigh: Turley; Alstead, Potter, Halliwell, Rourke; Duffy, Martyn; Marshall, Rowley, Norman, McConnell, Wilkes, Knott. Subs (all played): Isherwood, Smyth, Bowker, Cruckshank.

Keighley: Beevers; Smith, Wainwright, M.Foster, Robinson; Nipperess, Firth; Stephenson, Hoyle, Clegg, Parker, D.Foster, McDowell. Subs (all used): Mitchell, Wilson, Ekis, Mervill.

Penalties conceded: Leigh10, Keighley 7.

Handling errors: Leigh 15, Keighley 11.

Sin-bin: Smith (Keighley) - deliberate obstruction 51 mins.

Referee: Gareth Hewer (Whitehaven).

Attendance: 2057

Man

rNOT a game anyone will look back on with any pride. But Knott's guiding hand helped Leigh through and his two tries were crucial in the final shake-up.

Moan

rLEIGH had enough possession to win two matches. It's just a pity they decided to give half of it back to Keighley!

Magic

rTHE sound of the final hooter. Rarely has a game seemed so long. Eighty minutes of Chinese water torture would have been preferable.