LEIGH are no nearer finding a cure for their travel sickness.

A seventh successive away defeat - and the midweek 34-12 loss at Whitehaven was a tame surrender at that - threatens to undo so much good work.

Three straight home wins have lit up a gloomy start to the season . . . but on the road Leigh are a different team.

Strangely lethargic in attack and back to their flimsy worst when defending, Leigh handed Haven victory on a plate with an error-littered effort.

The Cumbrians are always difficult to beat at the Recreation Ground - they certainly don't need any help!

Yet Leigh were at their most generous.

They began badly and got worse.

John Costello knocked on from the kick-off, Phil Kendrick gave away a penalty on the first tackle from the first scrum and Anthony Murray followed suit by stealing the ball in front of his own posts.

Two-and-a-half minutes gone, 2-0 down.

Paul Wingfield's penalty pulled them level. Then things turned nasty.

Stuart Donlan claimed his was bitten on the forearm by an opponent and sparked off a crazy few seconds where David Hill felled Mark Wallace with a high tackle and fists flew in the melee that followed.

Referee Nick Oddy clearly hadn't a clue as to what had sparked the trouble and put the whole incident on report.

Wingfield hit a second goal, there were tries for Kendrick and Murray - and little else.

Tim Street was denied a certain try by a timely interception, then the prop followed his customary calling to the cooler - sin-binned for interference at the play-the-ball.

LEIGH: Donlan; Hill, Kendrick, Purtill, Wingfield; O'Loughlin, Donohue; Street, Murray, Pucill, Whittle, Grundy, Costello. Subs: Liku, Garcis, Gunning, Jenkins.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.