Cougars 0, Leigh 36 - COUGARS turned in a blistering second half performance to rock Northern Ford Premiership Champions Leigh in the Trans-Pennine Cup Final.

After the team which took the club to the top of the NFP, and earned a place in the final, was ripped apart following the club's cash crisis they were always playing for pride. And the young guns showed real guts in the face of intimidation.

If the match had been played when originally scheduled Cougars would have had a team to make the final a real contest. But both clubs were reluctant to play a 'final' which brought no reward. In truth it was little more than a celebration for the Centurians who had already been crowned NFP Champions.

The game itself was over by half time as Leigh ran up a 20-0 lead, and the writing was on the wall when full back Neil Turley raced in for their first try after just two minutes. The young Keighley side held on for the next 25 minutes without ever really looking like scoring, although Rob Roberts, Phil Stephenson and James Simeonovich went close.

Errors and indiscipline, including five dropped balls early in the tackle count, cost them dearly. Leigh centre Paul Anderson scored their second and third tries with and Willie Swann sneaked over for the fourth and Simon Svabic's two conversions made it 20-0 at the break and took the game beyond Keighley's reach.

For the first 25 minutes of the second period Cougars matched the champions with Stephenson a towering influence. Young referee Richard Silverwood failed to take tough action against violence in the scrums -- and the game deteriorated into a scrappy affair.

Both teams had two players sin-binned and Leigh's Dave Whittle was finally sin-binned for striking Roberts. Whittle had earlier been sin-binned with Keighley's Carlos Sanchez after a brief melee in the Leigh territory, and on his way back to the dugout gave the 'V' sing to jeering Cougar fans, an incident which could cost him more than his eventual dismissal.

Jason Ramshaw also spent the final six minutes of the game in the sin-bin with Anderson after a skirmish provoked by Swann's off the ball attack on the Cougar skipper.

Three tries in seven minutes, from Turley, Baldwin and Liam Brotherton together with two Svabic conversions rounded the game off for Leigh.

Cougars: Hogg, Hodson, Hooson, Smith, Tomlinson, Stephenson, Ramshaw, Hannah, Roberts, Simeonovich, Sanchez. Subs: Morphet, Kirk, Senior, Best.

Leigh: Turley, Ingham, Anderson, Fairclough, Watts, Svabic, Swann, Street, Hamilton, Whittle, Baldwin, Kendrick, Bristow, Leatham, Bradbury, Duffy, Bristow.