Kurt Haggerty keeping the faith at Leigh and isn’t focusing on other teams

Interim Leigh Centurions head coach, Kurt Haggerty, says that he and his side are focusing on themselves rather than others around them in the Super League table as they hunt for their first win of the campaign.

Last weekend, they were thumped 64-22 at home by Hull FC while their nearest contenders, Salford Red Devils, won narrowly away at Huddersfield Giants to leave the Centurions two wins and four points adrift at the bottom of the league table.

Despite this, 32-year-old Haggerty still has the belief that his side will get their first points on the board soon if they focus on their own game rather than anyone else’s.

“We’re preparing every week to win, and I do still believe that first win is coming for us. I don’t think we’re very far away [from it]at all. We’re not focusing on anybody else. Be it Salford, Hull KR, Wakefield, whoever. We’re just focusing on us and what we can control. They don’t have any bearing on us at the moment.

“They [the players]were very honest [after Saturday’s defeat to Hull FC], and they’re an honest bunch of blokes, so they’re fully aware of what they did and didn’t do. They’ve been great in how they’ve handled it and how we’ve reviewed the game. They’ve held themselves accountable and been fantastic in looking at fixing certain things.”

The Centurions have lost all 10 of their Super League games so far this campaign and suffered their heaviest loss of the season to date last weekend, but will soon have a chance to right those wrongs when they travel to Warrington Wolves’ Halliwell Jones Stadium on Thursday night.

Going into the Round 11 clash, Leigh will once again be the underdogs. While coach Haggerty acknowledges the quality within the opposition’s ranks, he remains quietly confident and says his team must be mentally prepared.

“We can’t dwell on the game against Hull [FC] too much. We move straight on, it’s a short turnaround, and we’ve prepared to go and beat Warrington.

“Warrington are a very good team, we’re under no illusion about that. They will be missing certain personnel [partly due to Friday’s mid-season international between England and the Combined Nations], but we’ve hardly focused on them this week.

“We’re not too interested in what team Warrington have, or personnel that they have or haven’t got, we’re just going to go to win and to focus on us. I’m very optimistic and I’m sure that we’ll put in a much better performance.

“We need to start the game better, be competitive early and then stay within the game. I’m sure that we can certainly shock a few.”

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