AFTER last week’s disappointing defeat at home against Blackburn, Leigh yesterday welcomed their old friends and adversaries from West Park to Round Ash Park and soundly defeated them 18-0.

Kieran Duffy came in at scrum half for Alex Leadbetter and David Wood made a welcome return to the squad on the bench.

Leigh got off to a flying start when early pressure resulted in Paul Hampson driving over from three metres out, after three minutes, for an unconverted try.

Their lead was soon extended on nine minutes, when the trusty boot of Elliott Ryan added three points with a penalty, quickly followed by another on eleven minutes to take Leigh into an eleven points to nil lead.

Leigh kept up their tempo and further pressure in the thirty-fourth minute produced an opportunity for Rob Drake to weave his magic from a scrum ten metres out. Kieran Duffy fed Rob down the blindside and he brilliantly dummied his way over to score, wide out, on the left, for a try which was excellently converted from near the touchline by Elliott Ryan, to take the sides off at half time with Leigh leading eighteen points to nil.

The second half saw a much different West Park outfit appear and they had the lion’s share of possession for long periods of the half but their one dimensional style of play was pretty easy to defend against and Leigh defended very well, with every player putting his body on the line to keep them out.

Leigh finished the game on the front foot and were unlucky not to add to their total on several occasions when they were close to the West Park line but the West Park defence scrambled and kept them at bay.

A much improved performance from a very determined set of players who really played for each other yesterday. Let’s hope that they can carry this momentum into next week’s game, away at Vale of Lune - who are sitting two places higher in the League but with only one point more.