York City Knights 14 Leigh Leopards 34.

Leigh Leopards suffered a major scare and a costly sending-off before booking a first Challenge Cup semi-final appearance for 36 years.

Adrian Lam’s side will play St Helens next month for a place at Wembley as they did in 1987 after a ninth successive win in all competitions.

But they had to come from 14-6 down after 57 minutes with an unanswered 28 points burst before subduing their battling Championship hosts.

Leigh played for all but five minutes without second row Kai O’Donnell for a dangerous tackle on Josh Daley.

And as they did against Wakefield at Magic Weekend, the Leopards also went down to 11 after Zak Hardaker’s first half sin binning.

However, it all came right in the end with wingers Tom Briscoe and Josh Charnley scoring twice in the final quarter with Tom Amone also touching down in the comeback.

As expected, coach Lam made minimal changes to his side for this first Challenge Cup meeting between the teams since 1921.

Umyla Hanley was rewarded with his impressive form on loan at Rochdale with a place at centre, stepping in for Ricky Leutele.

Edwin Ipape dropped out of the squad entirely with hooking duties shared between Matty Davis and Aaron Smith. Tom Nisbet, back from suspension, came in for Oli Holmes in the second row.

Wigan showed against Warrington how to win with 12-men but Leopards would have preferred not to have lost O’Donnell.

Instead, the Australian’s horrible looking tackle on Josh Daley was an obvious red card; referee Jack Smith’s decision uncontested by his team mates.

It nearly got worse for the visitors but a potential try for Will Jubb was disallowed.

Leigh’s sluggish start was highlighted by an uncharacteristic fumble by Charnley from John Asiata’s pass with the try line 20 metres away.

Asiata was fortunate not to see yellow for a late tackle on Daley which resulted in Myles Harrison kicking the Knights in front.

But Leigh did drop to 11 after 18 minutes as O’Brien failed to find touch with a penalty for Ata Hingano’s tackle on Briscoe.

Hardaker flew into the tackle, catching winger AJ Towse high. York marched upfield and Hingano’s angled kick was collected by Joe Brown to dive over. Harrison goaled to make it 8-0.

Eventually, Leigh hit back but it took an error by Centurions old boy Hingano. He knocked on Lachlan Lam’s grubber kick and Joe Mellor seized on the loose ball to score from inches. O’Brien added the conversion.

But Leopards hadn’t eradicated their lethargy and, despite Hardaker’s return, conceded a second try six minutes from the break.

Towse brilliantly patted back Hingano’s kick into the hands of Harrison who caught cleanly and touched down with Briscoe, Hardaker and Mellor all appealing in vain the winger was outside the field of play.

Referee Smith’s on call decision of ‘no try’ was overruled and the centre stretched the Knights’ lead to 12-6.

The pain wasn’t over, however, for Leigh and Harrison, who missed the conversion, added a penalty from 40 metres after the hooter to give the hosts a deserved two-score advantage.

Leigh couldn’t play any worse in the second half but they still struggled to subdue the hosts. And there were anxious moments before a Conor Fitzsimmons’ effort was disallowed.

Charnley couldn’t hold a Hanley offload before Amone finally rumbled over with 23 minutes left. O’Brien converted.

Four minutes later Leigh led for the first time as the famed left edge attack finally clicked with Hanley sending over Super League’s leading try scorer, Charnley. O’Brien missed from outside wide.

But the game was up for the part-timers and Leigh adding further touch downs from Briscoe (2) and Charnley. Hardaker kicked three conversions.

Match stats.

York : Brown; Towse, Harrison, Jones, Ward; Hingano, Daley; Ta’ai, Jubb, Fitzsimmons, Field, Clarkson, Cunningham; substitutes: Kirby, Michael, Teanby, Sumner.

Tries: Brown (18), Harrison (34).

Goals: Harrison 3/4.

Leigh: O’Brien; Briscoe, Hanley, Hardaker, Charnley; Mellor, Lam; Amone, davis, Mulhern, Nisbet, O’Donnell, Asiata; substitutes: Chamberlain, Smith, Wilde, Seumanufagai.

Tries: Mellor (24), Amone (57), Charnley (61 71), Briscoe (66, 80).

Goals: O’Brien 2/3, Hardaker 3/3.

Referee: Jack Smith.

Half-time: 14-6.