Poor ball control, an inability to exploit Spotland's new aquatic dimension and an ineffective refereeing performance combined to cost Hornets dearly in this close fought Challenge Cup tie.

In appalling conditions - worse even than in the league game at Hilton park a few weeks ago - Hornets and Leigh slugged it out to settle matters between the two sides once and for all.

The first half was messy and uncompromising, Leigh looking like the conditions suited their 'blunt instrument' approach. Their sole tactic in the opening quarter appeared to be 'wallop Paul Davidson until he retaliates'. Under extreme provocation he resolutely refused to get drawn in, but he was rattled - dropping the ball twice in his first two carries. Despite Leigh's somewhat rudimentary approach, referee Silverwood was only shaken into activity by a Hornets offside, which Turley dispatched to give Leigh the lead.

It was yet another innocuous Hornets offside - seen only by the referee - that saw Dave Stephenson similarly dispatched to the sin-bin. Leigh saw an opportunity and opened their try account - an astute McCully grubber held up in the rising tide for Bretherton to dive in and score.

But Hornets dug in and - on 22 minutes - Tawhai worked a neat short ball for Smith to hit at pace and stroll thorough a static Leigh defence to score. Agar converted. But in typical fashion, Hornets threw away the impetus - allowing the resulting kick off to scud into touch then standing static at the scrum while Bristow threaded Willie Swann through to score. Deficit restored in less than a minute. Shocking.

With the half - unlike the surface water - draining away, Paul Davidson ran through the centre channel, finding James Bunyan with a neat cut-out pass, the substitute winger crashing in to score. Agar repeated his touchline feat from the game at Leigh to send Hornets in at 14-all at half time.

With the rain now relentless, Leigh began the second half in determined fashion. Where Hornets seemed content to throw away posession under no pressure, the Leythers played a tight safety first game that ground Hornets back deep into their own territory. On 55 minutes the pressure told - Matautia was allowed to get the bal away from the tackle, Turley made a rare attacking contribution and his pass found Bristow who scored. Turley converted.

But Hornets couldn't really find a way back. Ball dropped early in the tackle count plagued any attacking intentions, ref. Silverwood wrongly penalised Brendan O'Meara on defence claiming that his sliding tackle that took McCully into touch included a secondary effort and Leigh semed quite happy to hoof the ball back to the Hornets 20 and defend the half way line.

Indeed it was a forced last tackle pass right on half way that saw Svabic snaffle an interception and squelch 50 metres to effectively seal the game. But there was still time for Mr Silverwood to deny Hornets a chink of hope. With five minutes remaining the ball was worked to the non-stop Matt Calland who steamed through his opposite number to plant the ball down. Silverwood was happy, the touch judge 18 inches from the try was happy, but the referee took the word of the touch judge 60 yards away that there had been the slightest fumble in the previous play - unseen by anyone else in the ground - and wrote the score off. Uproar. The ref. had been up with the whole of the last play and had seen nothing. A scrum was planted and Leigh brought the ball away unscathed.

With seconds remaining, Tawhai again put Smith through a huge hole; he found Danny Wood in space enough to scoot round behind the posts and score. Agar converted, but was too, too late.
Final score: Hornets 20 - Leigh 24.

So, over two swamp-based battles this season Leigh are proven to be four points better than Hornets. But Martin Hall must be absolutely livid. Hornets time and again handed over posession early in the tackle count - the completion rate must be the lowest this season. And  the side brought nothing to the party at half back - fitting on such a damp day that we couldn't muster a spark of creativity.

What this game does do is throw the credentials of both Leigh and Hornets into sharp focus. Neither side played particularly well, but they are both expected to make big waves in the NFP this term. And, with Doncaster stuffing Shuddersfield, the team that gets its act together quickest and most consistently should put itself in real contention.

As it is, Leigh go into the next round, Hally goes back to the drawing board and Hornets fans go back to the league programme wondering precisely when the potential in  this team will actually be translated into action.