Crossed posts, Vanners. Yes 5/5 for, erm, less big Ben.

First 20 mins we really went at cas but felt a little frustration was creeping in that allowed cas to have a sniff of a result but that defence of ours really is a joy to watch committed , brave , brutal at times it really does knock teams off their game .2nd half after Lammys half time chat , what can I say only us in it , still in search of the 80 min performance but good result non the less . From a neutral point of view the classy cas has definitely gone , no real go forward in the pack take westerman out of that side and they get done by top 4 championsip sides. On to Huddersfield now who are not performing as expected, get that result and play offs are a definite possibility.

Out of sorts first half, tried to play the Miracle ball at times, second half different class . Lam head and shoulders above anything in this league , absolutely outstanding

For some reason the use of the word sniff in the same paragraph as Westerman is amusing me

Fantastic work rate from this team. Cas pretty much burnt out after 60 mins. Only worry is injuries that will inevitably occur at some point. Hopefully Ben N back soon so Amone can get a bit of a first half break. Top performance from him and Mulhern. Few first tries also which was nice Davis, Ava and Ricky. Probably best defensive team we have ever had at Leigh. Hudds next is it too much to ask for 4 in a row.

As mentioned I suppose we had the luxury of being able to rest players with many minutes to go.

Send Matty on as interchange for Edwin.
Asiata and Amone off for Wilde and Mellor with Matty then going middle and Mellor to hooker.
Then Edwin back on, Lam off and Mellor going to the halves.

I'll say it now, in that I was never I big believer in Martin Ridyard for many a year, God loves a tryer but he blew very hot and cold, especially kicking. But over the years he improved (I suppose that is to do with learning the game and maturing in general), his kicking was still hot and cold but he became more level-headed in attack and his defence was always solid. I see Reynolds in a similar vein, he seems to have gained that maturity over the years, still has the expected brain-fart in attack, we can't all be perfect but never goes hiding in defence. It's just comes down to the kicking, and we can't all be Inu I suppose, but I'd have gladly taken a cold Ben kicking game last night and hope for a perfect one when it comes to closer games.

Then again if we are going to start scoring more up the middle, we shouldn't have to worry about that.

Our players cardio does look unworldly at times.

From the last for matches I said I'd be happy with 4 from 8. We got 6 from 8. Top stuff.

Next four matches I'd hope for another 4 from 8. Giants next will be interesting as they seem to be falling out of form, I don't expect anything from Wire. Surely we should beat Wakey again and then Hull, how having got the better of Wigan on Thursday could be getting into a stride and then being at home may be the difference.

Deekos. I am about to commit heresy on this forum and seemingly in the eyes of most Leigh fans' views, but this is my opinion. Here goes....
For all Martyn Ridyard's many undoubted qualities he was not Super League standard. He was, however, a very good Championship level player. There, said it.
Leigh fan favourite, yes, deadeye goalkicker, yes, but Championship level only.
I do not know Ridyard personally. I am sure someone on this website will say that they know him, but I will be happy to accept that he is an absolute diamond geezer, a great bloke, but John Woods he was not. Whilst he certainly had the Leigh club at his heart and he gave everything for the club in the spells that he played for us he was limited as a player.
Lack of pace, for me, a susceptibility in defence and a tendency to disappear in close games all meant that he spent most of his career with us, playing in the Championship. Let's face it, had he been a notch or two better he would have been snapped up by one of the SL teams and played more games than he did at that level.
Heresy over.
Ben Reynolds - just what is happening to Ben?
Up to this season I would have said 'ditto' in respect of Ben to the comments I have just made in respect of Ridyard. Yet, something seems to happening and its all very good.
At the start of the season I was worried that if Ben had to play a lot this season then we were likely to be in trouble. I am more than happy to say that he has, so far, proved me wrong.
The jury is still out but I have stopped worrying when seeing his name on the team sheet each week. Yes, he still has his weaknesses but his deficiencies as a player have not prevented the team from functioning at the required higher level necessary to survive in SL. In a nutshell, the lad is stepping up. More to the point a much better judge of player than me, our PNG legend of a coach, is happy to pick him each week in what appears to be his first choice starting 13. Not only does Ben get picked but with him in the team we have just won 3 games on the bounce.. For some of us old enough to remember we have to go back to the early 1980's for when we last witnessed that happen at the top level!
Increasingly Ben is not looking out of place. Possibly it might be humble pie time in my previous assessment of him
I agree with your comments on the coming fixtures. We are definitely capable of taking points/winning cup games from the next batch of fixtures.
With each week that passes in this season the more I am beginning to wonder just how high we are going to finish in the table come the end of the season. We are certainly capable of finishing in our current position - which would amount to a success - but equally I don't see why we cannot finish a couple of places higher.
This looks like it will be a brilliant season for the club. It could just end up being a memorable one. And I thought last season was good fun...

When I saw Ben Reynolds in the Warrington pre-season game, then at a team training session pre-season, I said he was in the best shape and looked faster than I had ever seen. Adrian Lam and co have a big hand in his growth this season, but Ben himself has obviously put in so much work on a personal level to get himself to where he currently is. Going forward I see him as our version of Stephan Ratchford.
He is playing great at 6 but could now really be developed in years to come and used at 1, 3/4, 6, 7, 9 and 13 if needed. Every good team needs that player. He is fit, fast and dedicated in attack and defence.
He also looks like a key part of the team spirit.
Well
Done BR

VL, I will echo and agree with most of what you have just said. My only real concern with Ben playing outside the halves is - again my opinion - a lack of genuine pace.
I seem to remember him being exposed a few times because of this back in 2017. That would be my concern about him playing at, for example, full back.
For entertainment value alone given that he is a Pontefract lad I just love the way that he interacts with opposition fans from certain West Yorkshire clubs, particularly those in the Bermuda Triangle that is Featherstone, Wakefield and Castleford. Boy do they love to hate him. Keep annoying them Ben.

Lam Snr seems to have found his 17 match day squad with a few accidents on the way. The issue of starting 2nd rowers, first was O'Donnell being elevated from impact player to essential starting player, with the ability to play a full 80 minutes high intensity game. This was due mostly to the early injury to Joe Wardle, and then to Jack Hughes (a player who has failed to live up to any reputation as former Warrington Captain and representative honours for England and GB). Shorrocks made a real mark in the team and then cemented his place back with Wigan. That leaves Oliver Holmes who appears to be improving on a weekly basis. This means a pack of Amone, Ipape, Mulhern, O'Donnell, Holmes and Asiata.

The backs from 1-5 seem to scare the bejesus out of opposition fans, with Charnley the renaissance man. The conundrum of who plays Fullback was sorted when O'Brien was forced to miss a week with failure of HIA. Hardaker is good but Leigh lost all shape without O'Brien and having to utilise Chamberlain.

At half back, Lachlan is the best 6/7 at the club for a very long time. Pre-season the shirt numbers suggested the natural partner would be Mellor, but with injury issues, Ben Reynolds has got the nod. It is not all sweetness and light with BR, because I thought he was invisible against Wigan, but the last 3 games have shown the best of Reynolds and he is keeping out Mellor due to performances.

In my opinion the first 13 are now picking themselves, and there appears to be a core of reserves that are trusted at some level to do a job. These are Mellor, Davis, Ava, Wilde and Nakubuwai. On the fringe are Brand, Chamberlain, Hanley, Nisbet and Smith. What happens when Wardle and Hughes are fit is not clear.

Viewing the Castleford forum, I was annoyed that Castleford fans (and other fans) still see Leigh as newly promoted team and as such should be able to swat us away whenever they feel like it. I think now this is a serious wake-up call for Wakefield and Castleford, that one of the old guard is staring down a trap door.

Comment of the year to date
“The Bermuda Triangle that is Featherstone, Wakefield and Castleford”
I have to agree that pace has been a little lacking in previous years, but this year with his amazing fitness and growing confidence to take on the line, I believe that is way less of an issue. Look at Ratchford. He is a very confident and experienced player, who is all heart, keeps himself in too shape, and is willing to play where ever and do whatever is needed. He is also a player who has been pointed at as lacking ultimate pace, yet he is an ever present for Wire.
He is certainly putting his stamp on the 6 shirt right now but he would always be in my 13 regardless for his place kicking, as we have nobody else stepping up, and his defence is relentless.

Ratchford is a funny case in point. For me he has never nailed down a position yet is versatile enough to play regularly with a degree of competence, but not necessarily brilliance, in any number of positions. He always seems to be filling-in for someone (perceived to be better in that position) to either be signed or to come back from injury.
He fills-in where necessary and never seems to do a bad job. Even today, towards the fag end of his career he is filling in, because of gaps in Warrington's squad, at centre and he is not a genuine centre at all yet he does this and whatever role he is chosen for competently each week in a team that is, most seasons, operating towards the top end of SL - last season excepted.
I also suspect that Powell really rates him and that he is one of the first names down on the team sheet every week.
I had also overlooked, until I saw him play against Leigh in the SL fixture a couple of months ago, just how niggly a player he is as well - and I mean that as a compliment. Clever niggle (he generally get's away with it) not disciplinary liability niggle.
Ratchford is the type of player that most opposition fans don't rate because of his versatility and perceived lack of brilliance - a Jack of all trades, Master of none - syndrome. Yet, i suspect that if he had ever moved to Leigh during his career that we would have treasured him.
Anyway, we have Ben R. Some similarities indeed with Ratchford and, as I have said, whilst I may not have been Ben's biggest fan before now I think that this season he is going along quite nicely and doing alright - and I am chuffed for him that he is doing so.

Septi. I agree with your comments on the 'first choice 13' that is emerging.
But, is this due to the small size of the squad and the lack of quality outside the matchday 17 (1icon_cool.gif, by that, a lack of genuine competition for places?
I know that British players are signed up for their teams and we cannot raid the NRL for gems such as Tom A, Kai O'D, Lachlan L, John A and Edwin, due to overseas quota spot limits, and I know that the club, from what they regularly say to the press, are constantly looking for additional players but I will not feel completely happy until we have some quality signings added to what we have already got.
Everything is just fine for the moment but all we need is an injury or two or suspension and we will be stretched uncomfortably thin, genuine quality wise

Septi, with regard to your comments on Cas and Wakey. The wake-up call is clearly happening in the minds of the fans of both clubs who post on their forums. Talk about doom and gloom. The proverbial trap door is opening in front of them, from which there is unlikely to ever be a return, and they are worried. Smug pre-season assessments about finishing in mid-table security are looking fanciful by the minute and by each defeat.

It's like the moment on the Titanic, after the bump with the ice cube, that someone does a headcount and works out the maths and suddenly realises that they don't have enough lifeboats.

Yes, I have seen the Derek interviews. Mixing my metaphors again, I suspect that Derek would say it was a case of chickens coming home to roost if Cas, or more particularly Wakey, now got relegated.

Two seasons ago when Leigh were last in SL they (Wakey) had the chance to vote against relegation and to boost SL to 14 teams. They even put their club's name to the proposal but ended up changing their position and voting against their own plan due to complete self-interest, as did the owners of several other clubs who had put their names to the proposal. They felt that by the time of the vote at the meeting of the club owners that they no longer had to support the plan. They chose instead to safeguard for themselves a larger slice of the SKY financial pie - do the maths, same TV rights money divided by 12 or 14 - under which of those calculations do you get the bigger figure!)

This was because, by the time of the vote, Leigh's league position had become so parlous that it was obvious that Leigh were going down under the existing structure and that their own clubs were safe from the drop. Talk about being short sighted for short term financial gain. Idiots!

Derek will have little or no sympathy when this season either Wakey or Cas drop through the trap door. He might just raise a bottle of San Miguel, or whatever he drinks, to toast them when this occurs. What's the Chinese proverb - he who laughs last, laugh's longest - or is it a case of revenge is a dish best served cold. Never cross a man whose personal wealth is so sizeable when that means he will always outspend you if he choses to do so and Derek's spending on the club since that vote 2 years ago has been somewhat impressive. I wonder what his motives for that have been. Let me think.....

Anyway, if you look at the comments of Leeds fans, they are not sounding so chipper either. They are lucky. Under the IMG proposals they will never go down, or can they this year before the changes come in? Maybe they are right to be worried as well.

For my money, Leeds may not be as good as their fans (and just about every pundit) mistakenly thought they were but they are not bad enough to go down, neither are Hull, but for Cas and Wakey.......Good luck chaps and welcome to one of you to permanent semi professional rugby in the Championship for the rest of your club's existence.