LEIGH Centurions face their toughest test of character so far this season when they make a return trip to Spotland.

Just a week after their acrimonious Arriva Trains Cup Final defeat, the Centurions tackle in-form Rochdale at the same venue.

But Spotland holds now fears for the Centurions who are determined to maintain their position among the pace-setters of National League One.

Hornets, Leigh and Salford are all neck-and-neck on 14 points at the top of the table and Centurions boss Paul Terzis believes these three will finish the regular season in the leading positions.

He says: "There are only nine league games left and I feel that the next four matches will decide whether we finish in the semi-finals or not. The games after that will decide which position we finally finish.

"The mood in the camp has been good last week. The players quickly got over the disappointment of losing the Final and are fully focused on winning at Rochdale."

The Hornets will hardly be strangers to Leigh with five former Hilton Park favourites likely to be in their 17 - Jon Roper, Gareth Price, Radney Bowker, Chris Irwin and John Hamilton.

Leigh will be a little light in the half-back department with John Duffy joining the casualty list. Duffy, who lasted only 11 minutes against Salford, will be out for up to a month after straining medial knee ligaments.

"We are still not 100 per cent sure of the full extent of the damage because of severe swelling, Terzis says. "It could be that minor surgery may be needed, but we'll re-assess after the swelling has gone down."

With Lee Sanderson out with a torn hamstring and Tommy Martyn only just returning to full training, Leigh will rely heavily on Pat Weisner and Willie Swann in the coming weeks.

Leigh expect Martyn to make his long-awaited Centurions debut in three weeks time.

He has had the cast removed from his broken arm and is now working on building up the muscle and on his overall conditioning.

Phil Kendrick, sent off for an alleged high shot on Gavin Clinch last weekend, will make a personal appearance before RFL disciplinary bosses in Leeds next Tuesday. Leigh have still not heard if any other player will be cited after referee Peter Taberner put the brawl on report which resulted in Sonny Nickle and Alan Hunte being sin-binned.