KEITH LATHAM played his cards close to his chest last Friday.

He played a mish-mash of trialists and youngsters for the friendly against Oldham - and that kept spies Phil Larder and John Kear in the dark.

The Sheffield Eagles coaching duo had been hoping to pick up some tips before this Sunday's Challenge Cup clash. But they left Hilton Park none the wiser.

Leigh coach Latham used the hastily-arranged friendly to give his up-and-coming youngsters big match experience against a Super League side.

The end result was a no-contest.

While being reasonably competitive in the first half - Leigh trailed 22-10 at the break - the second period was literally men against boys as the full-strength Bears strolled to a 64-10 success.

Despite the size of the defeat there was ample reason for Leigh to take some encouragement.

Props Tau Liku and Andy Pucill both had top-class games in their short spells; Scott Hilton showed some neat touches and Paul Daniel made a successful return from serious injury.

"We were over-run in the second half," admitted Latham. "But that was only to be expected with the wholesale chopping and changing of players we made.

"It was a good learning experience for us and now we've completed three pre-season games and used the entire squad we know who is good enough and who isn't."

Leigh led 6-4 early on with David Ingram nipping in for a try goaled by Chris Sullivan. Their second touchdown came from Hilton after a neat scrum base move.

But tries from Paul Atcheson, Paul Davidson, Vince Fawcett and Darren Abram gave Oldham a 22-10 half-time advantage.

The second half was little more than a procession as the Bears added further tries from Abram 3, Atcheson, Paul Deacon, Scott Ranson, John Clarke and Howard Hill.

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