Stuart Littler visits new ground
Stuart Littler will play at Hunslet for the first time in a 13 year professional career as Leigh go in search of a win that will again move them level with Featherstone Rovers at the top of the Championship.
“I’ve not actually played there before.” Littler admitted, “Some of the boys and Basil (Millward) have said it’s a smaller pitch, so we’ve just got to prepare for that.”
The ever present second row or centre reckons that the Hawks are a useful side.
“Looking just at results they are on a losing streak but if you look more closely, they’ve lost in the last couple of minutes against three good teams in Barrow, Widnes and Halifax, so we are expecting a tough contest.” He said. “I know the March twins very well, they are the same age as me and we’ve come through together. Any team coached by them won’t give in. We’ve got to keep to structure and hopefully concentrate on our own game and not worry about them. Our own game looks after itself if we turn up with the right attitude.”
The last two weeks have seen the Centurions win silverware for the club and then come back down to earth with a league win against Sheffield.
“With a cup final you’ve got all the euphoria and there is a comedown from that. I think that Sheffield are a good team, they’ve got a few imports, more than any other team in this competition. Maybe we did lapse in defence, and we’ve tried to fix that this week. It would have been better if we could have stopped them getting a bonus point but we got the win at the end of the day and that’s what we wanted.”
Littler has been impressed with the competitive nature of the Championship. “We want to keep at Featherstone’s heels and hope they slip up.” He said, “I don’t think there are any easy games at this time of year, everyone is playing for something whether it’s a play-off spot or to avoid relegation. I suppose it’s gone like Super League in that if you don’t turn up you get beaten.”
Leigh will check on the fitness of a couple of players ahead of the game while Anthony Nicholson and Sam Hopkins remain in contention after recent performances for the Centurions Reserve side.