LEIGH made it two wins on the bounce in the Kingstone Press Championship in a wintry slog at The Shay.

Played in incessant sleet and rain, there was little hope of a fluent game with both teams keeping a lot of the play within their respective packs with the result in the balance until the dying minutes when Johnny Pownall broke up a Halifax attack and raced in to secure victory with the centurions' third try.

Leigh's close-kicking game gave them helped them good field position early on with Fax conceding the first of a number of drop-outs on the back of a good chase by Liam Kay and even better placement by Sean Penkywicz.

And the pressure paid off in the 16th minute when Penkywicz spotted an opening on the Halifax right and quickly moved the ball through Martyn Ridyard. He in turn found Kay, who knocked the ball behind opposite number Alex Brown and dived past him to claim four points.

Ridyard goaled to give the Centurions a 6-0 lead.

Halifax tried to respond but all too often the long kicking of Matt Place and Scott Murrell was cleaned up by Gregg McNally and further progress was halted in the middle.

Leigh came up with a superb second try on 21 minutes when Brierley, Ridyard and McNally combined and Kay again got round Brown to slide in at the corner.

Ridyard was again successful with the conversion and Leigh looked to be on their way to a straightforward victory.

But Halifax mounted their first serious attack after forcing a drop-out from the restart, but Chris Taylor was hauled out of play and the opportunity was lost.

Tempers flared in the 27th minute when Halifax put a physical tackle on Sam Barlow and Mitch Calahane was sin-binned for thumping the Centurions substitute.

Fax defended manfully during this period with Leigh unable to put further points on the board and it remained 12-0 at the turnaround.

The second half started in similar vein until Pownall threw a terrible pass to ground that was gleefully pounced on by lively Halifax replacement Ryan Maneely for a try converted by Steve Tyrer.

Fax continued to pile forward and held the Centurions in their own half for long periods. Richard Moore introduced himself to the Leigh pack with several thunderous drives and tackles only for Leigh to respond in kind with the reintroduction of Fuifui Moimoi.

This seemed to lift the visitors who saw a gilt-edged chance spilled after Tommy Goulden split the defence.

As the Centurions finally wrestled some field position in the last 10 minutes Kurt Haggerty had a try ruled out following a good kick to the in-goal area, while Ridyard was low with a drop-goal attempt.

With time running out, Halifax put the ball out to their left in the hope of mounting an match-saving attack. But Pownall atoned for his earlier error, first batting the pass down whilst facing his own line, then recovering to race 40 metres on the gluepot pitch for the try that, with Ridyard's goal, secured a hard-earned win.

Halifax: Greenwood, Saltonstall, Tyrer, Taylor, Brown, Murrell, Place, Calahane, Kaye, Ambler, Divorty, Manning, Bracek. Subs (all used): Tangata, Spencer, Moore, Maneely.

Centurions: McNally, Pownall, Worthington, Armstrong, Kay, Ridyard, Brierley, Moimoi, Penkywicz, Walker, Haggerty, Goulden, Emmitt. Subs (all used): Beswick, Wilkes, Barlow, Hopkins.

Referee: Matt Thomason.

Attendance: 2,868.