It was a quite surreal experience.

I wonder, given the week the team have had, would it have improved if it hadn't started with the draw at Bradford.

Either way there was a distinct lack of buzz for most of the match.

The 12 Sheffield supporters that turned up definitely got their monies worth.

Can't really fault any of our team's performance either - Fui is having a great season so far. Hansen & Rene playing well. Weston coming into his own and playing long stints.

Higham playing the full 80. Thought all the loanees went well, as did Harper.

Sheffield deserved nothing and got nothing. Their first 2 tries were off forwards passes and baring a few moments they gained their best yards thanks to the ref.

Hmmm, can we make a thread about Kendall that goes on for 4 pages and then he quits too?

To be fair with all the penalties going against us in the 2nd half that did have the effect of bringing the crowd into it and the final try with the offload from Unit to Paterson was lovely.

I'm sure there is much to pick over but the final word has to go to Ridy, full marks for playing today and taking some niggly shots to the ribs too.

Forwards were immense again. Outside backs looked a bit disjointed which is to be expected given the injuries we have. The line that Menzie Yere kept running in the second half ripped us apart on our right hand side, which is something we need to sort out for next week. Having said that Tyrer isn't anything like Yere, but it still needs addressing. I liked the look of Charnock, he adds something different to what we got from Ryan. He is strong in defence and has good hands. He also give us another outlet with his boot which we didn't get with Brierley. The most notable thing from today's game though was the team spirit which really came to the fore with that last try, everyone of them clearly gets on and are a team. Onwards and upwards.

If we hadn't given them (being polite about the Ref) so many penalties, they hardly ever had to make the hard yards into our half. Delighted with the win...

I'm very pleased with that win, would have gladly taken a win by 1 point with the injuries we have. Plus we've been weakest defensively in our outside backs while Sheffield have strong powerful outside backs so are almost perfectly set up to play us. Thought we saw lots of commitment today & a much improved defence which is a big positive with every thing going on off the pitch. Fuifui Moimoi deserved his man of the match, did long minutes for him and stood out both in attack & defence. Have to commend Ridy for putting his hand up to play through injury, that's real commitment to the club. Was pleased before the game to see several players on twitter talking about how they were looking forward to putting on the Leigh shirt & playing again.

Thought the ref was consistently inconsistent, looked very inexperienced. 1st half he got a lot wrong both ways, ignored offside but penalised players who weren't at times, missed a few forward passes but pulled up 50:50s, didn't know what was a ball steal or a knock on. 2nd half Sheffield spotted this & milked him like a dairy cow, fair play to them, we've never been much good at reading the ref. Do think it was only our excellent discipline that stopped it all kicking off though as he had no control & Sheff started pushing it a bit far 2nd half with lost of things going on off the ball the ref constantly missed.

All in all, very pleased with today, a win after a difficult week, with an injury ravaged team, against a team who could very well have beaten us.

Really pleased with the win. The lads showed true grit there to pull that out of the bag. They looked out on their legs when Sheffield pulled it back to 28-28. People saying about defensive work - how many sets did they have near our line and we held out? Yes, there are still weaknesses in the backs, but with Harper, Owen making their first appearances, they did very well. Thought Charnock looked good and would fit in perfectly - any chance of a season loan on that one viewing?

Good to see Bob in the dugout before the game as well - Hingham was immense today! What a player he really is. The forwards, every one of them where unbelievable. They, for me, won that game today. What a pack we have!

Feeling much more positive tonight.

Well after a horrendous week that's restored my faith somewhat.

A good win in adversity over one of our full time rivals.

Wonder if it will keep the trolls quiet for a bit - whaddya reckon?

Well said LS, I actually spoke to a Leyther in the pub after the game, and he said we were a disgrace with all the penalties we conceded. I asked him if he saw any incidents were Sheffield should have conceded any penalties to Leyth, and he said no ,we were are own worst enemy.

It beggars belief really.

I have a personal rule to minimise my forum.output when I've had a drink.
Full service will resume tomorrow. Til then, love n peace lolol

Saved me typing anything out agree with that except I'd add the Ref also missed a blatant chicken wing tackle right on the line right in front of him which further underlines how our guys kept their heads as last year it would have been a brawl caused by QLT.
Probably have given Ridyard the MOM (not that Fui wasn't a worthy winner) as in a week the club has been put in the spotlight it was pleasing to see a player that stands for what our club is about and is more than willing to risk his own health for the benefit of his team mates and the fans.

I've given up trying to out what it is people think they're seeing. Highlight was being penalised for pushing a Sheffield player during the play of the ball 10 min after we were penalised for getting pushed by a Sheffield player.

But as I said can't complain too much as he was equally inconsistent for everyone, we got done in the 1st half for a forward pass that clearly went back, the next tackle we got the ball back though for pushing a Sheffield player near the touch line

We had chris campbell at fev... now he really is tripe

Inconsistency it is then.

Our pack is outstanding but Sheffield's backs were very good 2day.

I'd pick Maitua in the centre next week and hope Leigh Smith is back next week too.


Mind you with the injuries we have I think we have made an impressive start to the season.

Riddy was very good 2day.

I don't think there is too much wrong on the field of play for Leigh. A few tweaks are needed, of course, but generally the players look more than happy. It won't be long before we're really tight in defence and putting a lot of points on opponents.

Fax next week away will be tough, but it seems like it's a good time to play them.

Full marks to the lads today, for grinding out a result. Having surrendered a 16 point lead (only a 16 point one, this week!

) to be level at 28-28, I thought they showed immense character to come back and win it, in the last five minutes.

Full marks to Martyn Ridyard for holding up his hand to play, and for making a major contribution. When you consider that McNally, Smith, Armstrong, Tonga, Worthington, Kay, Brierley, and Chase were all missing from the backs, plus Beswick and Dixon, in the forwards, that was an immense effort and spoke volumes for the team work of the boys.

Well done to each and every one of them!

I wasn't there today *had to make the call, flowers & mothers day or the match* + as Ginger Minger Mick Hucknall sang .... money's too tight to mention.

Anyway, I listened in on MixLR & during the Eagles comeback I did have flashbacks of Odsal last week, thankfully the boys dug deep & from reports showed great team spirit & togetherness which can only be good for when we get near to a fully fit squad & summer pitches.

Roll on the Shay away day ..... I WILL be there.

#BeLeighve

Brilliant display with all our well documented problems at the minute.

As if the backs were not disjointed enough already we find out 5 mins before kick off that Lee Smith has pulled up in the warm up so JP had to move to Fullback and Harper got about 5 minutes warning that he was actually going to be making his Leyth debut!

We had 3 of the backs all making their debut in Harper, Owen and Charnock plus Ridyard playing with broken ribs so we did very well to cope with the Sheffield attack as much as we did. Yere had a blinder and caused us real problems but he will do that to anyone when he is in that sort of form, top player.

Ridyard did superbly well. Our attack is so much better when we have one main man who is calling most of the shots and running most of the plays. Showed some silky skills and some moments of pure class too. His effort leading up to Maitua's try was fantastic. Showed the true heart of a Leyther to stick his hand up and play through the pain barrier when we needed him most. I was worried about risking him but he was amazing today and I am not at all sure we would have won that game without him. Man of the Match for me



Forwards were great, kept winning great field position.... and then letting them off EVERY time with a penalty which was very frustrating. The run of penalties against us in the 2nd half was incredible and we defended set after set successfully for so long. Was really impressed with that and then they finally broke through and ended up scoring 2 in 2 minutes to level



The 2nd half though we must have defended 12 sets on our line and conceded 2. Then when they levelled up we finally got some ball and field position, got down their end twice, 1st won and kicked a penalty then next set scored. Discipline was poor but when we FINALLY got a chance we scored straight away.

Fui Fui was a worthy winner of MoM. Don't know what has happened to him in the off season. He is a different beast to the player we saw last year. He showed glimpses last season but this season he is terrifying the opposition. Absolutely beasted the Sheff forwards when he was on in attack and defence.

Great win in the midst of a lot of adversity. Tough match, very exciting but we definitely deserved the win and were the better team.

Beltin post that Noz.

To amuse ourselves we had a wager going on, which tackle he would penalise us when we had Sheffield in their 20m area?
He has always been shocking and it makes you wonder how they get recruited, is it simply because we have nobody else?

Agreed with one caveat. Yes Fui had a great game, possibly the best I've seen him for Leigh but MOM surely had to be Micky Higham. Clearly not 100% fit but 80 mins of absolute quality in both attack and defence. Hansen too was superb for the whole game. There's no problem with the spirit of this team.

He's got some bloody cheek on him Mark Aston www.loverugbyleague.com/news_211 ... nalty.html After around 50 minutes the penalty count was 7 - 7. At the end of the game it was 8 - 16 in Sheffields favour. So for the last 30 minutes it was 9 penalties to one in favour of Sheffield... and Aston is genuinely moaning about the 1 penalty we were awarded?! Was a blatant pen anyway. Was all over Paterson for ages and then left his foot in as he was getting up to try and play the ball. It was the 1st time we had touched the ball in ages due to a massive string of penalties in the other direction. Try again next time Aston you moron

He's got some bloody cheek on him Mark Aston www.loverugbyleague.com/news_211 ... nalty.html After around 50 minutes the penalty count was 7 - 7. At the end of the game it was 8 - 16 in Sheffields favour. So for the last 30 minutes it was 9 penalties to one in favour of Sheffield... and Aston is genuinely moaning about the 1 penalty we were awarded?! Was a blatant pen anyway. Was all over Paterson for ages and then left his foot in as he was getting up to try and play the ball. It was the 1st time we had touched the ball in ages due to a massive string of penalties in the other direction. Try again next time Aston you moron

Nothing surprises me with Aston

Quote ="Nozzy"He's got some bloody cheek on him Mark Aston www.loverugbyleague.com/news_211 ... nalty.html After around 50 minutes the penalty count was 7 - 7. At the end of the game it was 8 - 16 in Sheffields favour. So for the last 30 minutes it was 9 penalties to one in favour of Sheffield... and Aston is genuinely moaning about the 1 penalty we were awarded?! Was a blatant pen anyway. Was all over Paterson for ages and then left his foot in as he was getting up to try and play the ball. It was the 1st time we had touched the ball in ages due to a massive string of penalties in the other direction. Try again next time Aston you moron '" Can't stand the man.

Quote ="Nozzy"He's got some bloody cheek on him Mark Aston www.loverugbyleague.com/news_211 ... nalty.html After around 50 minutes the penalty count was 7 - 7. At the end of the game it was 8 - 16 in Sheffields favour. So for the last 30 minutes it was 9 penalties to one in favour of Sheffield... and Aston is genuinely moaning about the 1 penalty we were awarded?! Was a blatant pen anyway. Was all over Paterson for ages and then left his foot in as he was getting up to try and play the ball. It was the 1st time we had touched the ball in ages due to a massive string of penalties in the other direction. Try again next time Aston you moron '" Can't stand the man.

Well bug ger me wi t'curly end of a Raja's slipper..........
We agree cokey