DOMINANT-LEIGH!

Oldham...12

IF this is a sign of things to come, then 2002 is going to be an even better year than 2001 for the Centurions.

Fighting back from a 12-8 half time deficit after an indifferent opening 40 minutes, Leigh ripped Oldham to shreds with some breathtaking play that sent the Hilton Park faithful back to their leftover turkey, licking their lips for more.

In a 23 minute spell at the start of the second half Leigh were unstoppable. Fast, organised and ruthless, they ran Oldham off their feet to cross for five wonderful tries and send Leigh into the New Year still on top of the table and happy in the knowledge that the best is still to come.

If Leigh are to better that 23-minute blitz, then we're all in for a treat in 2002.

Oldham clearly suffered from their lack of match practice, but it's hard to imagine any side in the NFP being able to live with the Centurions when they're in the mood.

Yet for the first 40 minutes Oldham showed the same qualities that saw them upset Leigh in last season's play-offs while on their way to the Grand Final.

"It shows the ability of the players to be able to turn a negative into a positive," said head coach Paul Terzis as he reflected on another job well done. "In the first half we were our own worst enemies but the players must be congratulated on the way they addressed themselves and came out strongly in the second half."

"It was a pretty dominant performance for a while out there. Oldham never seemed to have the ball, but that wasn't through their poor play, it was through our positive play.

"We were a bit disappointed the way we defended in the first half. They had players like Tommy Hodkinson who took the game too us but in the second half we were more dominant around the play the ball area and that set the platform."

And it was good to see several of Leigh's new faces playing significant parts in the second half rampage. Centre Jon Roper scored one wonderful try and is already forming a powerful and destructive combination with Simon Baldwin down Leigh's left flank.

Andy Isherwood was another of Leigh's outstanding successes, coming off the bench to terrorise Oldham's midfield defence and pick up two tries.

But it was a couple of 'old hands' who did the real damage.

Stand-off Simon Svabic continued where he left off against Hunslet with a near-perfect performance, repeatedly opening the Oldham defence with the quality of his passing and vision.

Then there's Neil Turley, seemingly determined to show he's not a one-season wonder.

The full-back crossed for a hat-trick to take his season's tries tally to seven in four games. He landed nine goals from 10 shots to finish the game with 30 of Leigh's 46 points.

And the scary thing is that his coach believes the best is yet to come. "There's a lot of improvement to come from Neil. He's by no means the finished article but he's not had a bad start to life in rugby league!", Terzis says.

Turley gave Leigh an early lead with a straightforward penalty goal before they found themselves 6-2 down. Busy hooker John Hough's short ball on half way found Mark Sibson, the full-back tearing through a huge gap in the defence before just outstripping Turley to the far corner. John Braddish's touchline conversion turned four points into six.

Leigh quickly recovered from the shock and when Svabic drifted across the face of the Oldham defence he threw a couple of dummies and ghosted through a gap for the equalising score. Turley's conversion put Leigh 8-6 up.

As both sides struggled for any real consistency, a series of skirmishes broke out ending with Jason Clegg and Baldwin spending 10 minutes in the bin.

Leigh looked like they would hang onto their narrow advantage until Oldham put together a a sharp attack which brought them an excellent try. Phil Farrell was allowed to stand and off-load in the tackle and from that moment Leigh were in trouble. Braddish carried the move on and Dave Gibbons finished with a six-pointer behind the posts.

Just three minutes into the second half and Leigh showed they were really in the mood. Svabic's long ball freed Baldwin, the second rower sending Roper close before he flicked inside for the first of Turley's treble.

Four minutes later Leigh were in full cry, Paul Anderson's strength creating an opening for Isherwood to pick up a loose ball and drive over the line with Sibson hanging on.

Oldham contributed to their own downfall by giving away penalty after penalty and when Leo Casey was sin-binned twice for persistent offending the the play the ball, Leigh made them pay with four more tries.

Paul Rowley's vision and pace out of dummy half had Oldham in retreat and when the unstoppable Isherwood set his sights on the line, his strength took him through four defenders for another try.

More mesmerising handling by the outside backs brought Turley his second try and when Roper took Svabic's wide pass at 100mph and burst through on a diagonal run to the posts to bring up the 40.

Luckily for Oldham, Leigh went 13 minutes before scoring again, Turley's anticipation getting him to the ball after Lee Sanderson had poked a grubber kick over the try line.

Scorers: Leigh - Tries: Turley (3), Isherwood (2), Roper Svabic. Gls: Turley 9 from 10. Oldham - Tries: Sibson, Gibbons. Gls: Braddish 2 from 2.

LEIGH: Turley; Andrews, Anderson, Roper, Irwin; Svabic, Sanderson; Norman, Rowley, Bradbury, Baldwin, Morley, Bristow. Subs: Isherwood (for Norman 26), Swann (for Sanderson 51), Hamilton (for Rowley 66), Ball (for Morley 32), Norman (for Ball 56), Morley (for Bradbury 61), Sanderson (for Svabic 72).

OLDHAM: Sibson; Dodd, Gibbons, Goddard, McNicholas; Braddish, Roden; Knox, Hough, Clegg, Farrell, Doran, Hodkinson. Subs: Barber (for Goddard 62), Guest (for Clegg 8 BB, BBR 19), Cowell (for Dodd 62), Casey (for Doran 29), Guest (for Knox 55), Knox (for Guest 71).

Penalties awarded: Leigh 13, Oldham 7.

Scrums won: Leigh 4, Oldham 6

Referee: Karl Kirkpatrick (Warrington)

Attendance: 3388.