Leigh coach brands Leopards’ first half demolition job ‘unbelievably good’ in Hull FC victory

Leigh boss Adrian Lam described his side’s first half showing as ‘unbelievably good’ after the Leopards won 32-22 at Hull FC to move back into the Super League play-off spots.

En-route to a tenth victory in their last ten outings, Leigh came out of the blocks flying at the MKM Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Josh Charnley, Adam Cook, David Armstrong (2) and Umyla Hanley all grabbed tries in a scintillating 40-minute display which saw them head into the sheds 28-0 to the good come the break.

The second half saw the game turn on its head as strugglers Hull mounted somewhat of a comeback, only for Charnley to go in again at the corner and kill the match for good.

‘The second half was a little bit nerve-wracking, but I thought our first half performance was unbelievably good’

32-22 the final score, hosts Hull won the second half 22-4. But while he admitted lessons can be learned from a difficult second half, Leopards head coach Lam had only victory on his mind post-match.

He said: “The second half was a little bit nerve-wracking, but I thought our first half performance was unbelievably good.

“We worked really hard on making sure we started well to give ourselves a chance here, I know Hull aren’t doing too well on the ladder, but I think some of their performances over the last month have been pretty good. They’re a tough team to beat.

“At the start of the week, we said if we could come away having won by a point, that would’ve done us, so we’re happy.

“Nothing really changed (at half-time), I thought it was business as usual. A couple of choices made on-field by the players hurt us a little bit.

“It was a horror run the last 40 minutes, but I don’t want to dwell on that with what we’ve been through the last few weeks. I’m grateful we leave here today with the two points.

“It was important to just find a way to win here today, it didn’t matter if it was ugly or scrappy or with a rubbish 40 minutes.

“As long as we got out of here with the two points, that’s all that mattered. I thought Hull FC were awesome in that second half, that’s what we expected from them. It was nail-biting stuff in the last 15 minutes.”

‘There are doubters everywhere… what we’ve been good at is being resilient, being present and dealing with each day’

Having seen Hull KR beaten earlier in the day at Warrington Wolves, Leigh’s victory at the MKM Stadium saw them leapfrog both the Robins and St Helens.

The latter of those jumps comes on points difference, with Lam’s side now sat fifth on the Super League ladder despite being among a number of clubs dealing with plenty of injuries.

The Papua New Guinean said: “I just think we’ve dealt with adversity really well as a group. There are doubters everywhere, and what you’ve got to be careful of is not allowing that to leak into the main group.

“You’ve got to hold everyone steady, but we’ve done it a few times now where we’ve been able to re-group and get on with it. I’m proud of them for that.

“Ideally, we’d have no injuries, but that doesn’t seem to be the case and there always seems to be something happening.

“What we’ve been good at is being resilient, being present and dealing with each day.

“There’ll be a lot of negative comments about the second half, but I get strongly that if we could get out of here with two competition points, that’d be enough for us.

“We’ll use it as a reminder that if you take your foot off the accelerator, you can get hurt, regardless of who you’re playing. It’ll keep us grounded.”