PAUL Terzis won't allow next week's mouth-watering Challenge Cup fourth round tie against Super League neighbours Salford City Reds to distract his team from its number one priority.

Working on a first-things-first basis, head coach Terzis has told his squad to forget Salford until next Monday morning.

"The League is our bread and butter - the Cup is the cream on the cake," he says.

"Before we even speak about Salford, I want us to totally focus on Rochdale this Sunday which is another big game in our efforts to consolidate our high standing in the NFP table.

"We can't afford to be distracted from our main objectives of winning the Trans-Pennine Final, winning the league, winning the play-offs and then winning the Grand Final. The Challenge Cup isn't top of our wish list this week - it will be next week!"

Once this weekend's Rochdale game is out of the way, Terzis will be plotting to guide Leigh to becoming the first NFP club to ever beat a Super League side in the game's top knockout competition. And their efforts will be watched by a national TV audience. The BBC will be bringing their Sunday Grandstand cameras to Hilton Park and screening the whole match live. Kick off is 1.45pm.

A bumper crowd is expected for the tie which pits the East Lancs Road neighbours together in any competition for the first time since 1994.

"We certainly want to make it a day to remember," says Terzis. "TV gives us and the town the perfect opportunity to state our case for Super League. Leigh's been off the mainstream RL map for so long, but this tie gives us the chance to make people sit up and take notice and appreciate what has been achieved at Hilton Park in the last couple of years."

The financial implications for a club of Leigh's size are also significant. They will receive £8000 TV money and, even if they lose, £6000 as their share of the Silk Cut sponsorship cash. Equally as important is the national exposure the club will get - and the resultant spin-offs that come with it.

No-one will be relishing the tie more than Leigh's quintet of ex-Salford players. Simon Svabic and John Duffy moved directly from the Willows in the off-season; Dave Bradbury and Chris Morley played there in the not too distant past while Andy Fairclough's early pro career was with the Reds. But, as Terzis rightly points out, there is another side to the coin with Leigh-based players Steve Blakeley and Stuart Littler likely to figure in Salford's 17. "They'll want to put on a show against their hometown club," he says.

"Salford might not be the strongest team in Super League but they have top quality players right across the park like Michael Hancock and Martin Offiah."

But one man missing will be Bobbie Goulding who is out with a broken thumb. Leigh won't sorry about that as it was Goulding (aided and abetted by Stuart Cummings) who got Wakefield out of a tight corner at the same stage last season.

Terzis concludes: "They might have the benefit of full-time training but will they have same strength of character and belief in themselves as my team has? Time will tell."