WARRINGTON Wolves suffered a second loss to Leigh this month as they went down 28-12 at Leigh Sports Village.
Having been firmly second best in the Magic Weekend meeting between the two at the beginning of July, any hopes of a positive result this time round were extinguished in a 10-minute spell in the second half.
The Leopards led after eight minutes when David Armstrong crossed on the left off a scrum play, before the pick of the tries saw Adam Cook put Umyla Hanley away to put Lachlan Lam diving in under the posts.
Hanley was taken out on a kick chase which enabled Cook to tag a penalty on for 12-0.
But Warrington got a foothold in the match off the impact of Toff Sipley, who crashed over by the posts and looked like they’d go in to half time a score behind.
However, a soft penalty given for another contact off a kick chase was missed by Cook, but from the subsequent 20 metre drop-out, Leigh scored with the last play of the half through Innes Senior on the left.
Trailing 16-6, Warrington started the second half brightly and appeared to get further impetus on 48 minutes when ex-Wire Josh Charnley was sinbinned for a high contact on Toby King.
But if anything, the sense of injustice from that incident galvanised Leigh, and within a few minutes, the numerical parity was restored when Leon Hayes was sinbinned for a tip-tackle on Owen Trout.
When Joe Ofahengaue powered from under the posts on 53, the game looked like it was slipping beyond Warrington and so it proved.
A Cook penalty following a late hit by Joe Philbin stretched Leigh’s lead to 24-6, before a controversial decision off the subsequent kick-off saw Leigh awarded a penalty when Trout appeared to have been tackled in to touch.
From the resulting field position, Leigh eventually scored again through Hanley to really put the game beyond doubt, though Albert Hopoate did manage a consolation for the Wolves 10 minutes from time.
The win moves Leigh level on points with Warrington in the Super League table.
Leigh: Armstrong, Senior, Hughes, Hanley, Charnley, Cook, Lam, Ofahengaue, Horne, Liu, Halton, Trout, Brogan. Subs: Vaalepu, Davis, Brown, Ipape.
Warrington: Webster, Ashton, King, Smith, Hopoate, Irwin, Hayes, Byrne, Walker, Thomas, Holroyd, Harrison, Currie. Subs: Sipley, Crowther, Philbin, Bentley.
