Rochdale Hornets 24 Leigh Centurions 74: IT'S an indication of just how high Leigh's standards are these days that even a near-record away win isn't good enough.

Although Leigh breezed to top spot, scoring 13 tries against a poor Rochdale side that is in free-fall towards National League Two, they weren't a completely happy bunch.

After a near flawless first 40 minutes, Leigh took their foot off the gas - at least defensively - in the second half and allowed Hornets to climb up off the canvas and restore some credibility with four tries.

"It was close to perfection in the first half," said coach Darren Abram. Our completion rate was up near 100 per cent, but in the second half I don't know what happened. We lost intensity, particularly close to our own line.

"Rochdale responded with four tries and we're not happy with that. I've posed the question to the players and they've come up with their own answer. They've vowed to work even harder at putting those little wrongs right. It pleases me that they know where they've fallen short."

While Leigh continue to strive for the perfect 80 minutes - and if they ever find it, someone's in for a real caning - Bobbie Goulding's Hornets need a miracle to even stay in this division.

While he has his hands full steering Hornets into calmer waters, Goulding has no doubt that his side had been beaten by a team heading in the opposite direction.

"When I played for Leigh in the 2002 Grand Final, we were always second best to Huddersfield," he said. "But this current team is better. They're well-drilled, well-coached and have the right quality of players to take them up."

It's doubtful any team would have lived with Leigh the mood they were in for the first 40 minutes.

The onslaught was relentless. They scored at better than a point a minute and with a little luck would have been well passed the 50 point mark at half time.

Half-backs John Duffy and Tommy Martyn had a field day. Behind a totally dominant pack, they carved openings left, right and centre as Hornets were blown apart.

Another to make an impact, this time on his debut and 21st birthday, was winger Gary Rourke. Promoted from the U21s, Rourke plays like a mini version of Brian Carney. If he turns out to be anywhere near as good, Leigh have a crowd-pleaser in the making.

The game was less than three minutes old when Paul Rowley's long, flat pass found Chris Percival and the in-form centre stretched over for the first of his hat-trick. Neil Turley's touchline conversion was the first of 11 successful kicks which take him to within seven of a century of goals already.

Rochdale were chasing shadows as Leigh scored at better than a point a minute. Dan Potter leapt highest to score from Martyn's crossfield bomb and Simon Knox romped in after Martyn and Rowley had sliced open the defence to put Leigh 16-0 up inside 14 minutes.

From a set-piece scrum move Duffy found skipper Ian Knott at full pace and, after a acrobatic juggle, went in for his 10th of the season.

Immediately from the re-start Leigh won possession back, Martyn launched a might 40/20 and Martyn sent Percival clean through to the posts.

Hornets were unable to control Martyn and when he put Percival away again, Knott was on his centre's shoulder to race away for another.

Movement and off-the-ball running had Hornets mesmerised and Percival crossed for his hat-trick to take his season's total to 15.

The half ended just as it had begun; Duffy breaking up the middle and Rowley finishing under the black dot for a 46-0 lead.

The match was won, no question about that, but an untidy second 40 brought one or two worried looks in the Leigh camp.

The tone was set early on when Martyn's attempted long pass was snaffled by Hornets sub Sam Butterworth who went 80 metres for a try goaled by Lee Birdseye.

Heath Cruckshank restored some semblance of normal service when he charged through a gaping hole in the Hornets defence to break his season's duck.

Two Rochdale tries in four minutes from Michael Platt and Komani Naulumatua, both improved by Birdseye, took some of the gloss off what Leigh had previously achieved.

But when they did put it together they were unstoppable. Dave McConnell grabbed his first of the season from Knott's sweetly timed pass and Turley went 60 metres up the touchline after put put away by Andrew Isherwood.

Martyn got the try his efforts deserved when he picked off a stray Rochdale pass and went half the length of the field unchallenged. A peach of a pass from Duffy got Turley in for his second as Leigh clocked up their 203rd point in just four league games.

Hornets, who hadn't scored more that 14 points in any of their previous six games, reached the heady heights of 24 when Andy Gorski latched onto a John Braddish kick to score against his hometown club.

Scorers - Leigh: Tries - Percival (3, 23, 35); Potter (11); Knox (14); Knott (20, 28); Rowley (38); Cruckshank (56); McConnell (65); Turley (69, 78); Martyn (72). Gls: Turley 11/13.

Rochdale: Tries - Butterworth (43), Platt (57), Naulumatua (61), Gorski (80). Gls: Birdseye 4/4.

Rochdale: Platt; Williams, Gorski, Cunliffe, Naulumatua; Birdseye, Braddish; Leathem, Billings, Hodgkinson, Ratcliffe, Newton, Shaw. Subs (all used): Butterworth, Ball, Robinson, Costello.

Leigh: Turley; Maden, Potter, Percival, Rourke; Duffy, Martyn; Knox, Rowley, Marshall, Larder, Wilkes, Knott. Subs (all used): McConnell, Cruckshank, Swann, Isherwood.

Penalties conceded: Leigh 8, Rochdale 5.

Handling errors: Leigh 8, Rochdale 6.

Half time 46-0

Full time 74-24

Attendance: 1303

Referee: Mike Dawber (Wigan).

Man

rTOUGH choice when most of the team were on top of their game in attack. Percival continues to impress with his strike rate but for all-round class Tommy Martyn was the stand-out star.

Magic

rHAD Martyn's leg been pulled after he and Turley botched up an interception try at Oldham the previous week? If he had, then he was quick to put it right with a trademark effort at Rochdale. His beaming face told its own story.

Moan

rTHE four 'soft' tries Leigh let in after half time. Rochdale were so poor that they didn't deserve to get within 70 points let alone 50.