ANOTHER rearranged Leigh side took to the field on Saturday as a result of still further unavailability and injuries.

Bill Ward was brought on to the bench and soon made his first team debut when he took to the field half way through the first half.

Bill did not disappoint and put in a solid, workmanlike performance in his first outing. Well done and thank you.

Kersal were the first to trouble the scorers when they went ahead through a penalty after three minutes.

Leigh were quick to bounce back and a good break by the full back, Jimmy Wilkinson, put Rob Drake into space for him to find the ever supporting Alex Leadbetter, who scorched over for a try, which was converted by Elliott Ryan.

Kersal were very quick to respond when they engineered an overlap down their left hand flank to score an unconverted try wide out. Leigh 7 AK 8.

However, Leigh came back down the field and a good break by Marcus Mercer found Marcus Morris-Williams in close support and his good hands found prop, Wayne McCabe, on hand for him to crash over near the Kersal sticks for Leigh’s second try which was duly converted by Elliott Ryan.

Kersal closed the deficit to three points just before half time through another penalty and the teams went off at the break with Leigh leading by 14 points to 11.

The second half was a very entertaining ‘nip and tuck’ affair with both sides throwing all they had at each other.

It was Leigh, however, who were to come away with the spoils following a good defensive shift in their own 22. Kersal packed down for an attacking scrum with only minutes left and looked certain to score then they created an overlap down their right wing but Jimmy Wilkinson cleverly read the play from full back and brilliantly intercepted their final pass to sprint away from 80 metres for the decisive score. Elliott Ryan went very close with his conversion attempt.

This was a monumental effort from the Leigh lads who all really dug deep and ran and tackled themselves to a standstill. If they can keep up this level of performance and commitment they really will stand a good chance of playing themselves out of the relegation zone and remain in North One West for next season.

It would be very fair to say that every squad member deserves the same amount of praise but to be honest Oliver Farley, Kieran Duffy, Rob Drake and Jimmy Wilkinson all sparkled in this truly remarkable team performance.

On Saturday Leigh travel to face high-flying Birkenhead Park, who are currently second in the League, with an unbeaten record so far this season. What a challenge!