Centurions 14 Hornets 14 by David Magilton: A POINT dropped or a point saved; there are two ways to look at the result of Leigh's energy sapping Lancashire derby draw.

The two sides went into the game sporting 100 per cent records and considering Leigh played with 12 men for all but 15 minutes they must have been confident of victory had a full complement been maintained.

As it was they were relieved to settle for a draw after Simon Svabic saved the day with a late penalty.

For much of the first-half the dismissal of powerhouse prop Dave Bradbury had little effect as Leigh looked the more enterprising side and were rewarded with two well taken tries.

Hornets, for their part, failed to capitalise on the extra man and their negative style and lack of invention from half-back was a disappointment.

The Centurions' defence was excellent and despite the absence of the injured Simon Baldwin, the depleted pack were never second best thanks largely to the efforts of Adam Bristow and Paul Rowley and bolstered by the debut of burly prop Vila Matautia.

As coach Paul Terzis admitted: " Having a look in our dressing room, our lads are disappointed because it is a game that they always want to win. The game was a good character-building experience for us though and that will be valuable in September and October time when it matters.

"Fourteen points is the most that we have had scored against us this year and it looks as though we are coming together at the back this year. All credit to our players, who have adapted to the new defensive structure well and we are only going to get better on that front."

"I am very happy to have drawn a game against a good Rochdale team without the likes of Neil Turley and Simon Baldwin, and with only 12 men for most of the match. It just goes to show that all our squad of 25 players can compete at a very high level."

The Centurions were reduced to 12 men in the 15th minute when Bradbury was shown the red card for a high tackle on Dave Stephenson.

"I didn't really see the incident and I'm not too sure that most of the crowd did either," Terzis said. "All I know is that Dave Bradbury has actually got a cut on his finger where it got caught in the player's eye so I'm sure that there was no intent there. He had his hand up and insists that there was no elbow there."

The incident happened right by the posts and Richard Agar opened the scoring with a penalty.

Leigh continued to look the more dangerous side and were rewarded in the 24th minute when Gareth Price was put through and his late pass enabled Rowley to dive over and Svabic goaled.

On the half hour Leigh pushed further ahead after a sweeping move ended with Liam Bretherton scampering over and Svabic goaled again.

Hornets finally exposed Leigh's defence three minutes from the break when Latham Tawhai slipped the ball out for Richard Patchniuk to dart over and Agar goaled.

Leigh did not help themselves after the break with too many handling errors putting themslves under added pressure.

Even so their defensive heroics looked capable of keeping the sterile Hornets at bay until the visitors prised them open in the 71st minute when Wes Rogers put Casey Mayberry plunging in at the corner. To add to Leigh's misery Agar landed the touchline conversion.

With just two minutes remaining Leigh came storming back and were rewarded a controversial penalty after Chris Morley was adjudged to have had the ball ripped out of his grasp. Svabic made no mistake to earn his side a well-deserved point.

Hornets coach Martin Hall saw the ball stealing incident differently to the referee.

"In the end I think that we have got to be disappointed not to have won the game," he said. "There was no question in my mind that the Leigh player let the ball out and as you would expect, our player jumped on it and caught it. It was a very dubious penalty in my opinion.

"What I could not understand was why it took so long to make the decision. If he didn't see the incident then call scrumdown. I asked Stuart Cummings about it on the way off at the end and he said that he had seen our player steal the ball in the tackle and was just waiting for him to give it back!"

Leigh: Bretherton, Andrews, Roper, McCully, Ingram, Svabic, Swann, Matautia, Rowley, Bradbury, Isherwood, Price, Bristow. Subs: Anderson, Ball, Morley, Norman.

Rochdale: Owen, Billy, Calland, O'Meara, Cooper, Agar, Tawhai, Rogers, Patchniuk, Davidson, Smith, Stephenson, Ball. Subs: Mayberry, Bunyan, Larder, Berry.

Referee: Stuart Cummings (Widnes)

Att: 3,444