LEIGH Leopards begin their gruelling run of five consecutive away games when they travel to Huddersfield Giants on Friday night (8pm).

And coach Adrian Lam admits that he would have preferred for his side to continue their momentum rather than have last weekend off following their good win over Salford the previous week.

They will be facing a Giants side that will still be licking their wounds following their heavy defeat in the Challenge Cup semi final on Sunday Lam said: “I would have liked to have not had that week off considering the way that we played against Salford, but you don’t get to choose those weeks that you’re playing and the ones you don’t.

“We had an 80-minute performance that I was really proud of as coach and we worked hard to get to that point.

“I thought it was that probably our best win of the season and we just want to maintain that now and I’m confident that we can maintain that.

“The best way of maintaining those consistencies is just to hold everyone accountable. It’s something that’s built up over a long period of time.

“We’re working really hard to get that, so I’m like I said, I’m confident that we can get that performance back to where it was quickly.”

Leigh will clock up the miles in the next five weeks with the Huddersfield game followed by treks to Hull KR, Catalans and Leeds and then the short trip to Wigan.

Huddersfield will be a tough one to start with, but one they will have to win to press on up the table with the battle for top six being particularly congested this season.

Lam said: “I think they’ll be hurt and emotionally upset about the loss in the in the Challenge Cup.

“So they’ll want to get playing rugby again as soon as they can and they get a chance to do that at home.

“They’ll be looking to bounce back and when they play their best rugby, they’re a very difficult team to beat.

“They beat us here in Round One when we had a really bad night at home so we want to make amends on that.”

Lam gave a fitness update with some of his medium term casualties progressing well.

He said: “There’s only Dan Norman that’s coming back from the failed HIA and the return to play protocols, so he’ll be consideration to play. That’ll certainly help us through that middle.

“With the other players there’s not much change for this week, plus we’ve had a few niggles from the Salford game so we’re just working hard and making sure that everyone gets through and we’ll makes some decisions on Thursday on the captain’s run before we play.

“Both Ben Nakubuwai and Gareth O’Brien are probably a week or two away. John Asiata is probably three or four weeks.

“Nathan Wilde (collar bone) is probably a week away as well. All of those players are back on field running now and it’s just a matter of getting that load up to make sure they’ve got enough in their legs.

“ We’re pushing them really hard and making sure they’re prepared and ready to go as quickly as possible.

“Keanan Brand is probably two to three weeks away. He’s out of the brace and he has only just started running today, so again he’s another one that’s on the mend but he’ll be another two or three weeks.

“We’re unbeaten in the last three games albeit a draw with Castleford, but we’ve been unbeaten for the last month so we want to maintain that moving forward.

“A lot of the players have played more minutes than what they probably would have had prior to these injuries and that makes it great for those players, but more importantly, it gives them experience that they wouldn’t have got on the field with us.

“So the Owen Trouts and Ben McNamaras are playing next level. We’ve given debuts to Louis Brogan and Lewis Baxter and the list goes on.”