Centurions 48 Chorley Lynx 12 - DALE Cardoza made a sensational start to life as a Leigh Centurion yesterday as he bagged a brace of tries in the derby day win over Chorley.

The winger signed from Doncaster just days before the game stepped off the bench to thrill the crowd on the half hour mark, when he raced down the left flank to show a clean pair of heels to the Lynx backs and power over the line.

It only served to add to a feeling of anticipation in the Hilton Park crowd that had been missing despite three early tries giving the hosts the ascendency.

Even though they were far short of top gear, there was something inevitable about Neil Turley's opening try for Leigh within four minutes, and things were only to get worse for the Lynx despite their flashes of inspiration.

Teams can't challenge for the Northern Ford Premiership without initiative and Paul Rowley showed plenty of that in racking up the first of his hat-trick.

Players were stopped in midfield after a scuffle between Simon Knox and Safraz Patel and with the touch judge confusing matters by racing onto the playing area, the experienced hooker ran forty yards to cross beneath the posts.

Knox carved open the next chance for Rowley to go over on the half hour, and the hosts continued after the break with Chris Morley and Andy Isherwood grabbing a try apiece either side of Martin Gambles' consolation for the Lynx.

It was the second of the afternoon for the scrum-half although the six points the Lynx did manage before the half-time hooter was far too lean for the possession they had enjoyed.

Lynx were not going to trouble a strong Leigh side but trailing by just 14 points going into the last quarter hour was a good effort that offered them the chance to really stun the title challengers.

All that hard work was undone though with the sin-binning of Anthony Murry for dissent, from which point the Centurions came into their own.

The impressive Cardoza doubled his club tally on debut with a late try as Paul Terzis's men took advantage of the extra man to entertain the crowd.

Dave Whittle rounded off a solid performance from prop forward with a try of his own whilst Rowley completed his hat-trick.

Terzis said: "I thought our discipline stood us in good stead. We have scored 48 points and if we did that every week, I would be a very happy coach."