You'd think Mellor would play after a bit of a break.

Given the chat I've heard and taking into account whatever regulations are/might still in place regarding testing positive for the virus of unspecified origin I can see Nisbet being on the wing, Reynolds kicking and a couple of other misses for coming of age and never been kissed.

Mellor in with Nisbet. Chambo, Inu & Hingano miss.

Doing a job so far. 4-36 after 57 mins.

Outstanding 0-40 in the second half. Well
Done lads. I hope we are injury free.

Ferguson might have picked-up a knock. He was subbed with about 15 mins left in the game. He seemed to be lingering on his knees after making a break.

Odd game this one. Our attack is now coming together very well. Tonight we moved the ball around at speed and with intent and yet our accuracy near the line was poor. We bombed at least 4 gilt edged chances in the first half. Yet, we ended up posting 58 points against opponents who gave us serious grief in the two previous games against them. We made them look poor tonight.

Leigh are fast becoming a juggernaut which teams in this division simply cannot handle. Ruthless rather than spectacular. I'm more than happy with the way we are going. We are still, in my opinion, some way off playing our best. This all bodes well for the end of the season when we should have come to the boil quite nicely for the games that really count.

Thanks for the insight Jack. From what I have seen lately I completely agree that we are a “juggernaut”, that is still building up to top speed.
Adrian Lam in an interview on Facebook said we were not up to speed in the first half and that we should have stopped the try. He did also say that we played probably our best 40 mins yet in the second half. I like that he is so balanced and realistic in his assessment of game.

Yes VL agreed totally about Lam. Realistic and balanced but also honest. He is like a breath of fresh air. I like him and, I have said this before now on other threads, that we are lucky to have him.

There's none of the generic sports jingoism that you get with most seasoned players and coaches. You know, the kind of stuff where they talk after a question but don't actually say anything. The kind of evasive sports generalisations that avoid giving actual opinion and judgment. That sports guff where an individual is forever 'trying to be the best version of themselves' - yuck, cringe, what the hell!

Lam is good in interview and his comments are worth listening to. As Jack's brother was only saying last night, we are now getting in his (Lam's) interviews an insight as to what is going on at the club. We, the supporters, have been in the dark about these things for decades. The club itself has traditionally been rubbish about communicating where we are at, hence we (the supporters) have to scour diverse rugby related online publications here in the UK and down under for information and where, on sites like this, we share gossip and rumour and speculation in order to try and decipher just what is going on at the club.

With a Lam interview, we get, hurrah, real updates on player recoveries, recently it was on Joe Mellor and a couple of days ago it was about Chris Green - back training but still another 3 weeks from being match fit. We get honest assessments of team performances after a game. We, as fans, know when we have seen a duffer of a game and Lam does not pull any punches. A 5 out of 10 performance gets described as being precisely that.

With him we get real insight in to player retentions and new signings pending - names not given obviously. So we know this week that Edwin's contract extension is the first announcement of several that we will shortly be told about- its a question of timing apparently.

We, as a club, seem to be a happy ship at the moment. This cannot all be due to Lam but a lot of it will be due to him. He seems to be a good man manager and the players clearly have respect for him and are happy to be here (at the club) at the moment. Contrast this with what is going on, according to their fans, with McDermott at Fev - new signings not getting picked, fans favourites getting shipped out on loan to other clubs without a word of explanation, sullen tv interviews.

A note of caution. If we get promoted this year, which I think we will, then this semi-euphoric state that we are all enjoying at present could dissipate into thin air very quickly with a run of defeats in the higher division. That's when the pressure is really on and when fissure lines between the relationship of players and coach become really fractured and exposed and disharmony suddenly seems to be everywhere. We shall see.

The Don Valley Hotel was a membership only affair apparently, £10 for a lifetime or £2 for a day pass...hmm

It was fun trying to workout the foot print of the old stadium, they appear to have left the 100m track outside the new ground, I can only assume that is where it was originally, so you can look around at all the other buildings and see just how big it was. The place around it still lacks basic stuff, like enough pubs.

The stadium itself was very friendly and we were lucky with the weather otherwise it wouldn't of been as enjoyable, though on point of principle, card only means I didn't spend any of my money there, which is a shame as maybe they could use the extra in their coiffures to buy a scoreboard, maybe LSV could gift them our old one, unless it's going into the opposite corner.

Onto the match. What I'd take from the game is that we were up against an Eagles side they really didn't do much wrong. I reckon they had a high completion rate and played some good off-the-cuff attack and scramble defence. And that is the terrifying thing is that we were that much more superior to them. Without trying to sound cocky and you can debate that, following to tough matches against them, there may be the hint of other teams resting players against us (and Fev) to concentrate on other key matches. I don't know.

Fergy seemed ok to me, looked more miffed he didn't score after his break away and to be fair we were scoring much of ours through the middle so the wings weren't getting that much. It is heartening to hear Eagles fans praising some of our squad as just being in a different class but I would concur with Jack, overall an odd game.

The 100m track is not where the straight in the original stadium was.
The number of pubs in the area is completely out of the Club’s control!
Before the original stadium was built, when the area was packed with heavy industry, there was almost a pub on every corner, but times have changed!
“And that is the terrifying thing is that we were that much more superior to them.” Hardly terrifying that a Club backed by a multi-millionaire aiming for Super League is superior to a Club which has spent years “on the road” without the means to generate funds on matchdays and no sugar daddy!
I would be happy for your Club to get promoted, and never need to visit Leigh again. The arrogance of a significant number of supporters is based entirely on the deep pockets of one man, not exactly a sound basis for a sports club!

"The 100m track is not where the straight in the original stadium was.
The number of pubs in the area is completely out of the Club’s control!
Before the original stadium was built, when the area was packed with heavy industry, there was almost a pub on every corner, but times have changed!
“And that is the terrifying thing is that we were that much more superior to them.” Hardly terrifying that a Club backed by a multi-millionaire aiming for Super League is superior to a Club which has spent years “on the road” without the means to generate funds on matchdays and no sugar daddy!
I would be happy for your Club to get promoted, and never need to visit Leigh again. The arrogance of a significant number of supporters is based entirely on the deep pockets of one man, not exactly a sound basis for a sports club!"

Hawk-eye, what is the arrogance that you refer to?

The arrogance is from being in Super League 3 times in the last 20 years. Each time Deggsy has been involved and has found the gap between SL and the Championship to be too large. The fourth attempt is a much better planned route, with an attempt to get good players with SL and NRL experience together for a promotion push and an attempt at player retention and recruitment for next season.

Leigh have done a Salford for way to long buying a new team each season. After relegation due to contracts being nulled as decreed by RFL this has been forced on the club. I think only 6 agreed new contracts for this season and the squad was wafer thin going into December. The only choice was to recruit from down under and this is where the club did due diligence. Recruiting a very experienced Management Team (a first for Leigh) then identifying players of a certain type, size and potential. They then sold a plan to players who had been side-lined mostly due to Covid and slowly built a juggernaut which plays within a strict plan conceived by Lammy as the future of the game.

The fans are ecstatic at the results and the players at the club's disposal but it is totally necessary if they are to finish above bottom of Super League. Featherstone in my opinion recruited good players but mostly discards for Super League due to their age. This would make for bottom placed finish in Super League.

I personally love some of the Yorkshire teams who survive and flourish on very small attendances, Batley and Sheffield are two examples. Leigh have traditionally been better supported and 3,500 was the usual average attendance even in a bad season. Leigh are targeting Super League survival and from experience you need to plan well in advance to stand even a slim chance of success.

I think I would prefer the person who made the 'arrogance' comment to explain what they mean. If they cannot explain or substantiate what they are saying, then the comment, as disrespectful as it is on the face of it, can simply be ignored.

If Hawk-eye chooses to 'put up' then we able to see what they mean and me and others here are then able to either agree with the point being made or we can take issue with it.

For the moment, Hawk-eye has come on the site, then made a fairly disparaging comment aimed at Leigh fans, without anything to back it up, and has then promptly fled.

Please come back Hawk-eye and explain what you are saying.

I have a feeling that hawk-eye may have taken my post the wrong way (unless this is also an arrogant point of view, in the vein of a Carly Simon song).

To clarify, nothing in that post was meant to be taken as a slight either against the city of Sheffield (one of the best places to drink), the Don Valley area, the new stadium or the Eagles team and the club as a whole. The whole day was a thoroughly enjoyable and positive experience, as it generally is when I've been to Sheffield, including all the tonkings we've suffered too.

Watching this Leigh team it isn't arrogance, it is still surprise more than anything. Yes we've the money to be surprised by some players we've previously brought in, but that was just it, it was a select few players, we actually have a squad now and the thought that this squad (and this is an observation amongst a broad range of other team's fans I've heard) is that it is good enough to stay in Super League, which is always the goal, instead of the yo-yo and flirtations with bankruptcy.