LEIGH Harriers RL made the short trip to Burtonwood Bridge to take on a tough side who are known for their uncompromising style of play.

Not suprisingly things did not go well at the start of the game for the Harriers, the strong running forwards of the Bridge team helped by some basic mistakes by the Harriers saw the home side take a quick 10-0 lead.

However, with the Bridge pack tiring, some quick back play saw Sanderson go over to reduce the deficit to 10-4 at half time.

The half time team talk from coach Tony Standish inspired the Harriers players who started the second half like a house on fire with the forwards bursting holes in the defence and the half back pairing of Leon Sykes and Chris Dootson leading the charge it was only a matter of time before the score changed again with centre Mick Cooke going in behind the posts allowing Dootson an easy conversion to level the scores.

Against run of play

With the Harriers in the ascendancy it was against the run of play when Burtonwood capitalised on a bad mistake straight from the kick off to score a converted try to go back in the lead 16-10.

This galvanised the Harriers and a long period of pressure on the Bridge line saw bustling prop Mick Leech charge over wide out to give Leigh some hope,with a magnificent touchline conversion from Dootson levelling the scores the game was set up for a grandstand finish.

A spate of penalties against Leigh for indiscipline moved the opposition to within 10 metres away from the tryline but solid defence saved the day with both teams rapidly tiring the Leigh players ran the ball upfield and Dootson calmly slotted over a drop goal to put the Harriers in the lead for the first time.

Within two minutes of the restart again Dootson popped over a 40 yard drop goal to secure the game at 18-16.