Leigh Centurions 46 Swinton Lions 4

SWINTON LIONS' first appearance of the New Year coincided with their first defeat of the season as Leigh trampled all over them at Hilton Park on New Year's Day.

The first 19 minutes of the game saw the two teams slugging it out in midfield with no points to show and the only remarkable event being the sin-binning of the Lions' Jon Neill and Leigh's Chris Morley for fighting.

What happened in the remainder of the first half beggared belief as Leigh raced to a 34-0 half-time lead.

Dave Whittle was first over the line when his short burst saw Wayne English and Kelvin Peet brushed aside easily to leave Simon Svabic a simple conversion goal.

Simon Baldwin piereced the Lions' defence five minutes later and he sent the ball back inside for the supporting John Hamilton to touchdown. Svabic again added the goal.

Straight from the restart the try of the match was scored when full back Neil Turley fielded the ball and seven other Centurions were involved before Alan Hadcroft touched down under the posts. Svabic again kicked the goal.

The Lions were reeling. It was soon 22-0 when Dave Jones crossed in the corner and Lions' debutant Lee Hudson had to leave the field injured after attempting to stop his opposite number.

Turley was the next to cross. In fact he crossed twice in two minutes, with Svabic adding both goals to bring up the half-time score.

Phil Veivers, who had started the game at loose forward, moved up to stand off after the break and this seemed to galvanise the Lions.

Paul Anderton got Leigh's next touchdown after a large right wing overlap, with Svabic again adding the goal points.

On the hour, Swinton managed to avoid a whitewash when John Paul Doherty's kick to the corner was cleverly palmed back by Andy Cheetham to allow Phil Cushion a simple touchdown.

Swinton then held out until the final minute when Turley completed his hat-trick after chasing a Liam Bretherton kick to the line.

Turley himself kicked the final goal as Swinton left the field with the words of their coach ringing in their ears.

"Thirty two missed tackles in the first half is just ridiculous. I was gutted with our performance," said Lions coach Mike Gregory.

SWINTON LIONS: English, Mead, Nanyn, Loughlin, Hudson, Wareing, Peet, Neill, Barrowclough, Hanson, Cushion, Smith, Veivers. Substitutes: Cheetham, Doherty, Napolitano, Staziker.

Referee: Mr Peter Taberner (Wigan). Attendance: 2,881.