Huddersfield 36 Leigh 10

By Matt Lawton
September 22 2002

A spirited performance from Leigh Centurions wasn’t enough to prevent Minor Premiers Huddersfield Giants claiming their second runaway victory over Leigh this season as they in turn booked their place in the Northern Ford Premiership Grand Final.

However, the final score doesn’t tell the whole story as Leigh could’ve easily made it much closer if it wasn’t for some poor play and three Leigh tries being disallowed by Oldham-based referee Ian Smith.
With both sides having large vocal backing in the 5,500 crowd, including around 2,500 vociferous Leythers who travelled over the Pennines, it was always going to be a high-paced, hot tempered game and this proved to be correct. Both sets of supporters were incensed at several inexplicable decisions by the match officials, although the bulk of these decisions seemed to be in favour of the Yorkshire side.
Huddersfield however deserved their victory as they outscored Leigh with 6 tries compared to the visitors two tries from Dale Cardoza and Paul Anderson. Leigh could’ve had more if decisions had gone their way and if Olli Marns wasn’t impeded when he seemed destined to score after he chased his own kick toward the try line but they just didn’t have the professionalism or guile of Huddersfield.
The Centurions didn’t have enough creativity after the inspirational scrum half Bobbie Goulding had to leave the field injured following an attempted tackle.
Leigh will now face Oldham or Batley in two weeks time to decide if they are going to play in their second Grand Final in three years.

C&WO Man of the Match – Neil Turley improved on recent performances, Olli Marns kept his high standard of performances and Dale Cardoza was impressive against his former club. However, I have to say that Simon Baldwin deserves the accolade – he didn’t take a single step back and was in inspiration to Leigh.