LEIGH RUFC were two minutes away from victory against Rochdale.

A late drop goal snatched an 11-10 win at Round Ash Park, coming a fortnight after Leigh's heavy loss to Bowdon.

The clash proved to be an excellent arm-wrestle on a beautiful autumn day.

The much bigger Rochdale side bossed the game for the first 25 minutes but a dogged Leigh defence kept them out.

Then a cracking break by Calvin Crompton, who made a rare but welcome appearance, got Jamie King into space on the left wing.

King made ground and quickly returned the ball to Crompton on his inside before the supporting Alex Leadbetter stepped his way over. Rob Drake narrowly missed with his conversion attempt.

Rochdale slotted a penalty in the 33rd minute to take the sides off at the break with Leigh leading 5-3.

The second half saw Rochdale replicate their early first-half domination and constant pressure resulted in them driving over from close to the Leigh line for an unconverted try.

Leigh bounced back immediately and a good break by flanker Charlie Wood found winger Joe Harrison on hand to finish off a lovely passage of play wide out on the right-hand side.

The remainder of the half found both sides pressing hard for the win and the Leigh defence during this period was nothing short of heroic, with wave after wave of Rochdale attacks being stopped dead in their tracks.

Leigh they went down to 14 men for the last 10 minutes and Rochdale gathered some momentum as a result.

They eventually set themselves up close to the Leigh line for a couple of final assaults but again they were courageously repelled on both occasions, and so decided to take the next best option which was to successfully go for a drop goal.

This was a much improved performance from Leigh, who battled for every minute.

Leigh entertain West Park on Saturday, kick-off 2.15pm.