Keighley Cougars...0

Leigh Centurions...36 THIS cup collecting business is becoming quite a habit.

Like buses, you wait ages for one and then two come along together. After going 11 years without a sniff of silverware, the Centurions have now got a couple within the space of four days!

On Sunday Leigh wrapped up the foregone conclusion that was the NFP Minor Premiership and Wednesday night's Trans-Pennine Cup Final victory over Keighley was equally emphatic.

Now all Leigh need to do is keep this sort of form going and they can make it a treble in the Grand Final.

When they're in this mood, there's probably no side in the NFP can live with them. Water-tight in defence, penetrative and inventive in attack, Leigh's game was almost perfect.

But they did tend to become somewhat side-tracked after half time when Keighley clearly decided to use a few underhand tactics in an effort to save further embarrassment. The fuse for a bad-tempered half was lit by referee Richard Silverwood who allowed the Cougars to spoil and interfere at the play the ball almost unpunished. Tempers flared and skirmishes broke out to result in four yellow cards and a red in the final 11 minutes.

Cougars' loose-forward Carlos Sanchez and Leigh's Dave Whittle were the first pair to go after one dust-up; Jason Ramshaw and Paul Anderson followed after another and in the closing seconds Whittle returned from the bin only to be sent off for retaliation in a tackle by Rob Roberts who had managed to get himself embroiled in every 'disagreement'.

Between the feuding, Leigh showed why they are a class apart at this level. They made it look so straightforward from the moment they swept into the lead inside 90 seconds.

Adam Bristow started as he meant to go on, the skipper making the first clean break of the game to get man of the match Simon Baldwin striding into acres of space. Without needing to look, the second rower knew Neil Turley would be at his shoulder, the full-back finishing under the posts to give Leigh the perfect start. Simon Svabic landed the first of four goals.

Leigh were so much on top in the first half that even three disallowed tries didn't matter in the long run. Turley had a second wiped out for a forward pass; a Baldwin effort was disallowed on a touchjudges intervention while Fairclough's 'no try' under the posts remains a complete mystery.

The Cougars were lucky to only be 10-0 down with Paul Anderson's strong running and neat grubber kick bringing him the first of two tries. Leigh put a more accurate slant on the scoreline when they crossed twice more before half time.

Svabic's booming 40/20 kick gave Leigh possession deep in Keighley territory and, with a move straight off the training ground, Svabic and Swann linked to bring Anderson flying back across the face of a sliding defence to go over for his second without a finger laid on him.

Not long afterwards, when Leigh were awarded a tap penalty, Swann didn't hang around to debate the issue - he was off and over in a flash to give the Centurions a 20-0 half time lead.

Keighley's intentions were clear all through the second half - damage limitation, niggle and spoil.

For the best part of 30 minutes it looked like being successful.

Keighley made better use of the ball going down the hill but ran into an solid blue defensive wall. Leigh held all the aces in attack and a burst of points sooner or later was inevitable.

It came in the final 13 minutes and began with Liam Bretherton's inch-perfect kick through the defensive wall, Turley collecting at head-height for his second of the night and 45th of the campaign.

Not long afterwards Hamilton repeated the trick, although his was more of a miskick that landed perfectly for Bretherton to dive in.

Six minutes from time Leigh underlined their complete superiority when Swann completely bamboozled the defence with a blind side scurry and inside pass that sent Baldwin clattering through for the final score.

LEIGH: Turley; Ingram, Anderson, Fairclough, Watts; Svabic, Swann; Street, Hamilton, Whittle, Baldwin, Kendrick, Bristow. Subs: Leathem (for Whittle 25), Bradbury (for Street 16BB, BBR28), Duffy (for Hamilton 28), Bretherton (for Kendrick 58), Bradbury (for Street 54), Hamilton (for Duffy 68), Whittle (for Leathem 66), Kendrick (for Bristow 78).

KEIGHLEY: Hogg; Hodgson, Hooson, Smith, Tomlinson; Ashton, Antonik; Stephenson, Ramshaw, Hannah, Roberts, Simeunovich, Sanchez. Subs: Morphet (for Sanchez 27), Kirk (for Hodgson 61), Senior (for Stephenson 34), Best (for Hannah 51), Sanchez (for Simeunovich 57), Stephenson (for Sanchez 75).

SCORERS: Leigh - Tries: Turley (2), Anderson (2), Swann, Bretherton, Baldwin. Gls: Svabic (4).

PENALTIES AWARDED: Leigh 7, Keighley 9

SCRUMS WON: Leigh 6, Keighley 10.

SIN-BIN: Anderson - Leigh (fighting), Whittle - Leigh fighting), Ramshaw - Keighley (fighting), Sanchez - Keighley (fighting).

SENT-OFF: Whittle - retaliation.

REFEREE: Richard Silverwood (Mirfield).

ATTENDANCE: 2626.