Warrington 44 Leigh Centurions 18, Kurt Haggerty comments

As the game at The Halliwell Jones Stadium reached the final quarter Kurt Haggerty’s men looked to still have a slim chance at 26-12 down.

All pictures by Richard Walker

But two close-range tries conceded in quick succession to Danny Walker and Eribe Doro plus a 90-metre interception effort touched down by Tom Lineham put paid to any hopes of a late rally.

Leigh did not throw in the towel and scored the final try of the game through Mark Ioane with the 44-18 scoreline perhaps looking a little flattering for a Warrington side missing 10 regulars through international call-ups and injury.

Yet when skipper Liam Hood crossed for Leigh’s first try four minutes into the second half and Ryan Brierley converted, leaving Leigh just eight points adrift at 14-6, hopes were high.

“I felt that we were in the game, even though we were behind. I felt there was a chance we could come back and win. But we just lost some of the big moments,” said Leigh’s interim head coach Kurt Haggerty.

“There was just a few momentum changers that we didn’t recover from and we didn’t win them moments.”

Haggerty felt some progress had been made on the previous week’s heaviest loss of the season against Hull FC as a reflected on a 12th successive loss to the start of the Super League season.

“It was a slight improvement,” he said.

“At times I thought we did some really good things but I just think we lost some key moments.

“I thought Warrington’s game management and end-of-set finishes were fantastic.

“But even in the last few minutes when Lineham went 80 metres we still had bodies in the picture.

“For us to move forward they’re the kind of efforts we need.

“One win and then things will change for us.

“Keeping up the moral is one of the most difficult parts of the job at the moment, trying to pick the lads up and getting them ready for each and every week, preparing that they can win. But this group won’t give up, they’ll keep fighting.”