Leigh East 22 Castleford Lock Lane 6: JUST to prove that last week's victory over West Hull was no fluke, Leigh East repeated the effort in Saturday's Arriva Trains Conference Premier game against high-flying Castleford Lock Lane.

If anything, Lock Lane were a more awkward side to beat with less footballing skills than the Humbersiders but with some strong, no-nonsense players and top class performers in Castleford Tigers professional Dean Sampson and stand off Mark Spears.

But East, again with three-quarters of their team aged 21 and under, knew exactly what they had to do to get the better of their more worldy-wise opponents.

Their attacking force was well directed by half backs Kilshaw and Meadows with Man of the Match Darren Hall, prop Michael Whiteside, full back Mark Kay and substitutes Rob Bowdler and Philip Murphy were prominent. Defensively East were superb with little getting past the formidable forward line-up of Whiteside, Taylor, Southworth, Wingfield, Clark and Rowson.

It was this magnificent defence which restricted the visitors to one try - Paul Birdsall scoring a try converted by Hardy in the 17th minute - despite powerful attacking spells in the opening 15 minutes of each half.

By the 21st minute the scores were level after Rowson had sent the Castleford defence the wrong way with a dummy to create the gap to touchdown, Woods bringing out full points with a good shot at goal. By half time East were 12-6 in front. A crunching tackle from Taylor and Southworth re-gained possession for East and a swerving run from Hall set up the chance for Gregson to score, Woods again tagging on the goal points.

East again had to mop up pressure from their visitors early in the second half but when Meadows was on hand to follow up Kilshaw's kick for a try close to the posts the game was as good as won. Kilshaw added the goal points and kicked two penalties to bring the scoring to a close.

Leigh East could not have had a more difficult start to the new season but the two good wins will have been the perfect morale booster for the big game next Saturday when Leigh Miners Rangers are the visitors to Grasmere Street.