LEIGH boss Adrian Lam hailed his side's defence and said they deserved a slice of luck after their 13-6 victory over Leeds at Headingley.

Leigh hit the front 23 minutes into the game when Edwin Ipape bundled over the try-line but went into half-time trailing 6-4 after Jarrod O'Connor crashed over the whitewash.

Leigh made a flying start to the second half as they regained the lead straight away through Tom Amone and Leeds' task was made harder when Sam Lisone was sent to the sin bin, with the visitors sealing the points through a Ben Reynolds penalty and drop goal late on.

Before the drop goal, O'Connor had a try ruled out by the video referee for dropping the ball on the line and Lam believes his side deserved the good fortune.

He said: "We defended well enough and worked hard to get that luck.

"If the two tries would not have been from dummy-half dive overs we had a good day considering they didn't break us down with shape and without their two key players it was always going to be the case.

"Having said that, just a bit of luck going our way was exactly what we needed.

"Had it not been a TV game I don't know what the outcome would have been. If that wasn't televised, it would've been awarded and it would be a completely different scenario, but certainly no try and it was the right decision in the end. That's the fine lines having the televised games."

Leigh face Hull KR in the Challenge Cup final next weekend, but Lam never had any intention of fielding a weakened side against Leeds.

He added: "We wanted to respect the Super League competition and where we were in the table.

"We didn't want to give that up easy and that was the mentality, we had a chat about how we wanted to address this week and it was all guns blazing."

Leeds boss Rohan Smith was proud of his team's performance despite the result Smith said: "There is plenty to learn from that game, but also plenty to be proud of.

"We were there or thereabouts, but I thought our defence was excellent against a very good attacking team.

"We had a very disciplined first-half performance, defensively completing our sets and attack-wise we weren't precise, but disciplined with possession and took some energy out of them. The try after half-time was a critical part of the game."

The result leaves Leeds four points off the play-offs, but Smith has not ruled out their chances of finishing in the top six.

He said: "I'm not too sure how many wins we ended up with last year that got us in there.

"I think there are plenty of twists and turns, it's just about getting one result and trying to get the next one."