Rochdale Hornets 24 Leigh Centurions 74 by Mike Hulme: LEIGH Centurions soared to the top of the LHF Healthplan National League One with an 11-try mauling of basement side Rochdale - and coach Darren Abram wasn't happy.
Though pleased with the way his side had performed with the ball, he was disappointed that Leigh had allowed Hornets in for four soft tries in the second half.
"That sort of defensive effort isn't acceptable," he said. "The lads spoke at half time about not letting them score a point and they're disappointed with their second half performance.
"The one good thing is that they've all responded by saying, 'let's work harder,' so they know where they've gone wrong."
It's hard to blame Leigh for taking their foot off the gas at half time. For the first 40 minutes they were flawless and scored at quicker than a point a minute.
Leading scorer Chris Percival helped himself to a hat-trick to take his season's total to 15. There were other from Dan Potter, Simon Knox, Ian Knott (2), and Paul Rowley as Leigh went in for the break 46-0 up and well on their way to a club record away win.
But they did allow their standards to drop in the second half and a more spirited effort from Hornets, helped by an early interception try by Sam Butterworth, made Leigh look vulnerable at times.
Heath Cruckshank hoisted up a third successive half-century of points when he charged through from 30 metres but two quick Hornets tries from Michael Platt and Komain Naulumata set Leigh back on their heels.
The attack never had the same fluency had it had in the first half but Leigh were still able to add further tries from Dave McConnell, Neil Turley (2) and Tommy Martyn with Turley kicking his 11th goal for a points total of 30.
Hornets had the final word when Andy Gorski collected a clever chip kick to score against his hometown club in stoppage time.
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