FORGET the scoreline - Leigh won this one by a country mile!
No wonder coach Ian Millward tagged this as their best win of the season.
You would have to go a long way to see a more perfect 80 minutes of football.
Incisive and inventive in attack, Leigh mauled Keighley six tries to two for a 28-16 win, snuffing out one of the most dangerous attacks in the Northern Ford Premiership.
Keighley simply could not break Leigh's stranglehold.
And this eighth win in 10 league games had Millward purring with satisfaction.
"This was our best win of the season," he said. "We had to jump some hurdles out there but when the going got tough we did not self-destruct.
"We worked on a specific game plan and the boys carried it off to perfection. Our attack is functioning well, and, for a team that isn't supposed to be able to defend, we showed a hell of a lot of character."
All that came on the back of a massive 14-5 penalty count and spending 10 minutes down to 12 when Stuart Donlan was sin-binned just after half-time.
"That showed the character in the side," declared Millward. "To be able to put those two handicaps behind them and come up with a win as good as that was a top effort."
Leigh couldn't have scripted a better start with a fumbled kick-off quickly leading to a Heath Cruickshank try.
Keighley couldn't live with Leigh in the opening 20 minutes and were undoubtedly relieved they conceded only one more try in that spell when Dave Whittle's charge for the line set up the chance for Dave Ingram to crash in for his 10th of the season.
The visitors recovered to close the gap, but Leigh soon recovered their composure, and, when Ingram made a 40-metre break, the supporting Anthony Murray was able to skip round the full-back and finish near the posts.
On the stroke of half-time Leigh moved 10 points clear when Scott Hilton and Donlan combined on the left and James Arkwright squeezed in at the corner. Wingfield, who had a rare off day with the boot and landed only two from seven, opened his account from the touchline.
The decisive score came on 66 minutes when Murray's clever short ball found Tim Street (pictured in the thick of the action) and the prop capped yet another top game by crashing in for the try.
Keighley edged back with a dodgy TD but Leigh finished with a flourish as the outstanding Andy Fairclough took his season's tries tally to 11 by cutting through, beating three men and stretching over.
LEIGH: Donlan; Hadcroft, Ingram, Arkwright, Wingfield; Fairclough, Hilton; Street, Murray, Whittle, Cruickshank, Liku, Kennedy. Subs: Bowker, Norman, Patel, Pucill. Attendance: 1,856.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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