Leigh survive big scare at Barrow to take another step in quest for Championship promotion

Barrow Raiders and Leigh Centurions served up a Betfred Championship thriller to mark the Queen’s Jubilee with the visitors eventually taking the two points home from Cumbria with them.

Adrian Lam’s side raced into an 18-4 lead by half time at the Matt Johnson Prestige Stadium as their quest for promotion continued, but Barrow very much enjoyed the best of the second half.

The Raiders led with seven minutes remaining after a quite remarkable second period, but Blake Ferguson raced away for the winning try, Leigh eventually 30-28 victors.

Explosive Edwin

Winner of the Ray French (Man of the Match) trophy last weekend as Leigh beat fellow promotion hopefuls Featherstone Rovers to win the 1895 Cup, Edwin Ipape was again on top form from the off.

He burst from the halfway line to score the first try of the match on nine minutes, scoring again in similar fashion 19 minutes later.

Sandwiched between them, winger Blake Ferguson – who scored four tries on debut last month – went over for his first ‘meat pie’ of the afternoon.

When Barrow broke through and scored through Brett Carter on the hooter, 18-4 the sides headed in.

At that stage, you felt the next try coming from the Raiders would turn it into a bit of a contest and it did exactly that.

Two minutes after the restart, debutant Connor Saunders – signed from a local amateur side – broke superbly and set up Luke Cresswell to get over.

Leigh did hit back four minutes later through James McDonnell and when Ben Reynolds – making his 150th career appearance – converted, the score pushed to 24-10 in the Centurions’ favour.

From there on though, it must be said that the Cumbrians’ performance was simply excellent while Leigh’s went the other way, becoming a shell of their former selves.

Cumbrians Fightback

Quickfire tries from Tee Ritson and Jarrod Sammut took them to within two points, and after Leigh had passed up numerous chances to score themselves, Barrow went in again through Saunders.

The hosts’ own man of the match, Saunders had an excellent afternoon and went four points clear when Sammut converted.

Only an ill-executed pass looking to kill the game off allowed Leigh youngster Luis Roberts to intercept seven minutes from time, feeding veteran Ferguson. The winger raced clear, going in under the sticks so Reynolds could knock the two over.

Those two points proved the winning two in the end. Even in that remaining time, Sammut had chance to draw his team level, missing a penalty from roughly 30 metres out.

Leigh the winners on the day, but in truth, Barrow probably the side that will take more positives from the game.

The Raiders welcome Widnes Vikings to Cumbria on Sunday as part of the Championship’s double-header week. Improvement will be needed from Leigh the same day when Halifax Panthers visit the Leigh Sports Village.

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