2:55pm Thursday 29th October 2009
Ince Rose Bridge 20 Leigh East 28.
EAST faced their toughest opponents so far this season at Ince Rose Bridge.
Bridge took a 12-0 lead before East started to apply some pressure, resulting in Danny Kilshaw jinking his way over.
Ince added two penalties before East struck again.
A clearing kick on the last tackle was charged down by Carl Redford. The quickest to react was Scott O'Brien, collecting the ball and running around the stranded defence to score with Ryan Peters adding the conversion.
Within two minutes of the restart Carl Mort blasted through the defensive line and Peters levelled the scores with a penalty awarded on 46 minutes.
East took the lead for the first time in the 55th minute, Scott O'Brien threading through a pinpoint kick for Gareth Pemberton to ground.
Bridge pulled back to within two points with a try and although they then held possession from the 68th to the 72nd minutes, including three penalties and 16 tackles in possession, they were unable to penetrate the solid East line.
In desperation the home players began to make mistakes, a high tackle on Middlehurst with two minutes remaining gave East field position 30m from the opposition line.
From the penalty East moved the ball at speed, stretching the tired Bridge defence and inevitably a try was scored, Redford putting Ryan Fieldhouse through to seal the result.
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