WARRINGTON WOLVES 26, LEIGH CENTURIONS 22: Disappointed coach Darren Abram forced a smile as he considered Leigh's unlikely bracketing with heavyweights Bradford at the foot of the table.

That smile would have been even wider had Leigh not missed a golden opportunity to break their Super League duck.

Abram's men gave Warrington - top six contenders in many eyes - an uncomfortable afternoon with a gutsy performance that perhaps forces those who have written them off to have a bit of a re-think.

This Leigh side was unrecognisable from the one that appeared stage-struck on their opening night. The longer they stayed in contention, the more confident Leigh became and with a little more poise would have won.

"There were some massive improvements on the performances of last week." Abram said. "I think we should have won today. We were the better team in the first half but went a little off the game plan in the second half and paid the penalty."

Leigh certainly controlled things far better than they did against Huddersfield but their problem wasn't reaching the six tackle, but what to do when they got there. Leigh's tame kicking game contrasted sharply with what they had to deal with from Warrington and Lee Briers in particular.

"That was the difference,"Abram acknowledged. "Briers was superb. Every kick asked questions of our full-back and wingers and they backed that up with an enthusiastic chase. There are lessons there for us."

Warrington didn't help themselves in other areas, however. They handled poorly at times and full-back Brent Grose had one of those nightmare games that hopefully only occur once in your career.

The Wolves certainly gave Leigh all the encouragement they needed after Jon Clarke had strolled in for an early try that Briers converted.

Warrington were probing close to Leigh's line when winger Henry Fa'afili slung a speculative pass infield and straight into the arms of Jason Kent who had an unimpeded 80-metre sprint to the other end. Phil Jones, handed the kicking role in place of the dropped Neil Turley, smacked over the touchline conversion to level matters.

Things just got better and better. Suitably encouraged, skipper Jason Ferris dribbled a kick in behind the Wolves defence where Gross made the first of a series of real howlers by chipping the ball into Rob Smyth's hands to touchdown for a 12-6 lead.

Another Warrington mistake was greeted by high-fives all round from Leigh who looked like they were starting to get the hang of this Super League lark. When Leigh won a penalty, Jones confidently stepped up to kick his team into a 14-6 lead with half time approaching.

Two minutes before the break Leigh failed to see the danger when Briers crabbed across field before finding Martin Gleeson with a wide pass. With space to work in, Gleeson's footwork took him over for a try that halved Leigh's lead.

When Briers created a try for half-back partner Nathan Wood in the early minutes of the second half, Leigh found themselves trailing and chasing the game. Jones missed one presentable penalty midway through the half before find the range again to level things at 16-16.

With sub Paul Rowley making acres of ground out of dummy half, Leigh gave every indication of being able to go on and win it but when he was replaced, much of the forward momentum appeared to be lost.

With just 11 minutes left the Wolves came up with the killer try when Clarke forced his way over from close in after Ben Cooper had stopped a runaway Mark Gleeson in his tracks. Four minutes later it was as good as over when Briers supported a break from Martin Gleeson to race under the posts to open up a 10-point gap.

A surprise result was back on the cards when Ferris touched down after hacking on Mark Leafa's kick ahead, Jones's conversion closing the gap to a single try.

They couldn't quite manage to pull this one out of the fire but this effort should give them enormous confidence for the rest of their programme.