THE sighs of relief around Hilton Park were deafening as Leigh stood firm and slugged out a first win in 12 games.

Sunday's 14-12 victory against Whitehaven wasn't pretty - but it was pretty effective.

It didn't win any prizes for style - but, after going since May 10 without a win, anything will do.

And for coach Norman Turley it was something of a milestone.

Just five days after handing in his notice he came up with a first win.

While he was satisfied to have broken his coaching duck, Turley remained disappointed.

"It was a poor game to watch with both sides making far too many mistakes," he said. "We'd have liked to have won with a bit more style and I thought we'd have won more comfortably than we did."

Style was one thing neither side had; both teams seemingly happy to slug it out up the middle.

In all honesty, there was nothing between them. And had John Allen's late lunge for the line not been ruled a double movement Leigh would have gone down to a 12th straight defeat.

But their lucky let-off and a rare penalty miss from close-in by Kevin Hetherington kept Leigh's noses in front.

Leigh, however, will continue to struggle until they come up with a natural play-maker. Stereotyped and predictable, it was grim stuff until the final 20 minutes when they found the sort of fluency Hilton Park teams are expected to produce.

You can't knock them for effort. Tim Street and Tau Liku had big games in the thick of the battle while Alan Hadcroft deservedly took the man-of-the-match award for his non-stop work in the centre.

But, for entertainment, not one to savour. Early on it looked like being a different picture with Leigh first out of the traps with a try on the board inside eight minutes.

Kieron Purtill's bomb was mishandled and Anthony Murray's loose pass was scooped up by Andy Fairclough who scored with his first touch. Paul Wingfield added the goal and later a penalty.

But that was about as good as it got. Whitehaven hit the front just after half-time.

With time running out and Leigh 12-8 down sub Nick Jenkins came up with the goods, plunging over from dummy half. Wingfield added the extras and Leigh were home and dry.

LEIGH: Donlan; Wingfield, Fairclough, Hadcroft, Hill; Arkwright, Purtill; Grundy, Murray, Bent, Street, Liku, Costello. Subs: Gunning, Kendrick, Garces, Jenkins.

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