Matt Peet’s classy words on Leigh Leopards following opening night defeat

Wigan Warriors boss Matt Peet paid credit to Leigh following the Leopards’ Round 1 win at The Brick Community Stadium, insisting they deserved their 1-0 victory.

For the very first time in Super League history, as a Battle of the Borough kicked off the 30th edition of the competition, a game ended pointless after 80 minutes.

With the score locked at 0-0, and with Wigan down to 12 for the second time in the game following Adam Keighran’s sin-bin, the clash went into Golden Point Extra Time.

Circa two minutes into the first period of Golden Point, Leopards half-back Gareth O’Brien found himself in position to kick a drop goal which won it for the visitors – the first-ever 1-0 winning margin in the summer era.

Matt Peet’s classy words on Leigh Leopards following opening night defeat

The win was Leigh’s first away against Wigan since August 1983, and accordingly, their first-ever victory at The Brick. It was also the first time the Leopards had beaten their neighbours at all since 2017.

Amongst a whole host of other major accolades, Peet’s side have won the last two Super League titles, losing just 12 of their 54 regular season league games across the last two years.

But after starting 2025 with a defeat, the Warriors boss expressed his wish for Thursday night’s game to get the headlines for the right reasons, as well as lauding conquerors Leigh.

The 40-year-old said: ” I thought both teams played to a really high level, and I thought Leigh were worthy winners.

“It was a good game, and I hope it gets the credit that it deserves. I thought it was high-level, intense, physical.

“The highlight reel won’t be very long, but when there’s so much talent on the field from both sides, for not a lot to happen, a lot of people are doing things right.

“To cancel one another out for that long takes a lot of work, a lot of effort, a lot of organisation and a lot of commitment to one another.

“I hope the game is being spoken about in the right manner, because a stray word here or there could undersell that game and it deserves to be talked about well.

“There are two sets of blokes there that deserve a lot of credit and two clubs that deserve a lot of credit. Derek (Beaumont, Leigh owner) deserves this one, 100%.”

‘They were awesome… they were committed and they showed what they were about’

Leigh’s success on Thursday night was watched by a crowd of 21,748 at The Brick, which is a record for the first standalone game of any Super League season.

Peet continued: “I could see that Leigh were here to play early on. They were scrambling for one another and it’s a credit to Lammy (Adrian Lam, Leopards head coach).

“They were awesome… they were committed and they showed what they were about.

“I knew we would come to play (before the game), and I thought Leigh would as well. They’re a proud group.

“It was a fascinating game, it just went for so long and was almost like a play-off style game, which is bizarre really.

“Leigh deserved it.”

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