HEAD coach Paul Terzis this week underlined the strength in depth at Hilton Park when he named a 31-man first grade squad for the new season.

While the rest of the NFP competition kicks off this weekend, the Centurions have a bye and only get down to action on December 10 when Barrow are the visitors.

But despite the weather wiping out Tuesday's scheduled final trial game against Oldham, Terzis remains happy with his squad's preparation.

"We've lost two pre-season trials to the weather in the last couple of weeks but to compensate we've stepped up and varied the training a bit. We'll be ready come December 10, don't worry about that," he says.

Terzis says he's broken with Leigh tradition and named a first grade squad so that each player knows he's part of the 'team'.

"I want to try and get away from the 'us and them' mentality where, perhaps in the past, an Alliance team player didn't really feel part of things. Now we're all one squad and the top grade side will be chosen each week from those 31 names. "I know that I can only pick 17 each week but the strength of our squad will ensure that the players know they must perform to their optimum each game to keep their shirts for the following week."

The squad is: Tim Street, Dave Whittle, Dave Bradbury, Andy Leathem, Chris Morley, Paul Norman, Jamie Gass, Paul Anderson, Andy Fairclough, Liam Bretherton, Willie Swann, Phil Kendrick, Craig Wingfield, Simon Baldwin, Jason Johnson, John Duffy, Adam Bristow, Radney Bowker, Lee Sanderson, Kieron Purtill, Saf Patel, Martin Roden, John Hamilton, Simon Svabic, Dave Ingram, Alan Hadcroft, Dave Jones, Alan Cross, Paul Wingfield, Neil Turley, Michael Watts.