Workington 8 Leigh 39 by Mike Hulme

IT'S been quite a while coming but Paul Terzis's financial outlay to bring Vila Matuatia from St Helens to Centurions is now starting to look like money well spent.

The Samoan front rower scored his first try in Leigh colours last week and followed it up at Derwent Park yesterday with a dominant performance as Leigh swept to a fourth successive victory to cement fourth place in the NFP.

Matautia proved a real handful for the big Town pack, repeatedly driving holes up the middle that Leigh's eager support players finished off.

The prop scored one of seven tries and helped set up two more as Leigh ran away with the game after a tight first half. Matautia set the move in motion that brought Leigh a second minute try from skipper Adam Bristow who easily outpaced full-back Steve Wood to touch down.

Tane Manihera pulled two points back for Town with a 14th minute penalty while Andy Isherwood became the first if two Leigh pack stars to spend time in the sin bin.

But when John Duffy's hanging crossfield bomb was cleverly tipped back inside by Oli Marns, Paul Anderson sent Simon Baldwin striding over for an 8-2 lead.

Soon afterwards Leigh opened up a 14-2 advantage when on loan Dave Highton was heavily involved in a move that ended with Duffy strolling under the posts for Neil Turley to add the extra points.

Despite the advantage of a strong wind, Town made little impression on a strong Leigh defence until Baldwin was sin-binned and Workington made full use of their extra man to carve out a try for Brett McDermott. Manihera adding the extras.

The decisive score came in the 50th minute, Matautia blasting a path through the defence for Baldwin to claim his second of the game. Turley's goal and a Duffy field goal took Leigh well clear at 21-8.

From there on in it was all one-way traffic as leigh began to pile up the points.

Paul Rowley's reverse ball saw Matautia skittle three Town defenders and crash over while in the final four minutes Leigh pounced twice more through Highton and Duffy with Turley adding two more goals.