You've done us proud!

They went down with their pride intact and were rightly cheered to the echo by a satisfied army of 4,000 travelling fans.

The Red and White army might not have seen them win - but had the satisfaction of seeing them fight, scrap and battle to come within 15 minutes of causing a second successive upset. Defeat with honour was good enough for them.

It's just a pity that the whole carnival occasion left a sour taste in Leigh mouths, feeling they didn't get sufficient protection from the match officials in the face of some over-aggressive tackling from the Wolves.

"We came to play rugby, it's a pity some of the Warrington team didn't feel the same way," complained an upset Leigh coach Paul Terzis.

Leigh lost influential skipper Adam Bristow, badly concussed before half time while gritty prop Dave Bradbury played for much of the game with a broken nose. In addition Tim Street and Dave Whittle had head wounds.

There was also an allegation of a Warrington star repeatedly grabbing Leigh players in the nether region while Lee Penny and David Kidwell face an RL inquiry after being reported for an alleged spear tackle on Chris Morley.

Although Terzis didn't go as far as to say the injuries were as a result of foul play, he will be asking League official Greg McCallum for his observations. "We'll go through the right channels," he says.

To put it bluntly, Leigh frightened Warrington to death and it was only the enduring skills of Allan Langer that saved their embarrassment in the final 15 minutes.

Even though they had superior size and speed, Leigh's determined part-timers never gave the Super League fat cats a minute's peace and the final 10 point winning margin was rough justice. The Wolves probably deserved to go through to the last eight - but not by 10 points. There was never that much between them.

Until they slipped up in the final 15 minutes, the defensive side of Leigh's game was magnificent. The Wolves created a chance or two but Leigh always seemed to scramble back and plug the holes; two one-one-one tackles from Neil Turley were particularly impressive.

Leigh's biggest problem was being unable to put any concerted pressure on the Wolves line; but they weren't helped by referee Steve Ganson whose interpretation of the off-side law was flexible to say the least.

But the fact that Leigh were in front 6-4 until the 65th minute shows what character and belief can achieve. Warrington were virtually at their wit's end until a couple of glimpses of magic from Langer took the game out of Leigh's grasp and when the final hooter went the sighs of relief were deafening.

Leigh made their intentions clear from the start as they forced Wolves to concede a penalty inside the first 60 seconds, Simon Svabic kicking the Centurions into a 2-0 lead.

The ill-tempered undertones boiled to the surface in the fourth minute when Street and Danny Nutley exchanged an uppercut or two and spent the next 10 minutes in the sin-bin.

The Wolves made the cleanest openings but a combination of Leigh's scrambling defence and Wolves' insecure handling, brought a tryless first half.

Leigh almost increased their lead when Svabic's snap field goal attempt thumped against the woodwork but it was only late in the half that they were really able to ask a few questions of the Warrington defence close to their own line. Chris Morley smashed Lee Briers behind his own posts and Dave Ingram forced Kevin Walters to hack dead. It was a sign of how desperate the Wolves were that they totally re-shuffled their back line to allow accommodate a half-fit Briers off the bench.

Having been forced to drop out twice in succession, Warrington gave away another petulant penalty and Svabic made it 4-0 at the break.

Warrington threw everything bar the kitchen sink at Leigh in the opening stages of the second half. Just when it looked like they'd seen off the worst, Langer worked a simple runaround move with Nikau, took the return pass and shot through the narrowest of gaps for the game's first try. Rob Smyth missed the relatively easy conversion but there was never any chance that Leigh were going to roll over, even though they had a lucky escape when Lee Penny knocked on with the line open. They roared back to the other end and Turley's kick and chase forced Smyth to hurriedly hack in the ball into the bank of Leigh fans. When Paul Highton was penalised for interference in a tackle, Svabic kicked Leigh into a 6-4 lead.

They held that advantage until the 65th minute when they powerful Steve McCurrie broke Willie Swann's tackle 20 metres out and steamed in for the try that put Wolves back in front.

Four minutes later Langer's sweet pass brought McCurrie back on the angle and he had too much power as the bullocked his way over for the try that effectively killed the game. Briers goaled and added another conversion soon afterwards as sub Jerome Guisset picked up a soft try out wide.

Leigh had the satisfaction of scoring the final, and possibly the best, try of the match. Started by Ingram's long break, Leigh swept up the right before Paul Anderson blasted over at the corner.

LEIGH: Turley; Hadcroft, Anderson, Kendrick, Ingram; Svabic, Bretherton; Street, Hamilton, Bradbury, Baldwin, Morley, Bristow. Subs: Leathem (for Bradbury 60), Whittle (for Street 28), Duffy (for Hamilton 32), Swann (for Bristow 33), Street (for Whittle 680, Hamilton (for Duffy 66).

WARRINGTON: Penny; Smyth, Sibbit, Kidwell, Stenhouse; Walters, Langer; Masella, Highton, Nutley, McCurrie, Busby, Nikau. Subs: Kohe-Love (for Kidwell 40), Georgallis (for Busby 75), Guisset (for Masella 34), Briers (for Stenhouse 31).

SCORERS: Warrington - Tries: McCurrie (2), Langer, Guisset. Gls: Briers (2). Leigh - Try: Anderson. Gls: Svabic (3).

PENALTIES AWARDED: Warrington 4, Leigh 8.

SCRUMS WON: Warrington 6, Leigh 4.

SIN-BIN: Nutley - Warrington (fighting), Street - Leigh (fighting).

REFEREE: Steve Ganson (St Helens).

ATTENDANCE: 8844.