Jukes never lost belief in Leigh

Leigh boss Neil Jukes says he was confident the Centurions could win at Hull on Friday, despite heading into the fixture without a victory in eight games.

Two tries by Matty Dawson (above) and Atelea Vea plus one from Ben Reynolds secured a 26-22 success to move Leigh three points ahead of Widnes at the foot of the table.

“We were never coming here to make up the numbers – we showed enough spirit over the last eight weeks,” said Jukes.

“The scores we’ve had, apart from Castleford, we’ve been competitive. We’ve worked tirelessly and stayed together and we will have a few more bumps along the way.

“The tackle on (Albert) Kelly late on and the follow up play to hold (Josh) Griffin up epitomised our game.

“We came up with smart plays at the right time, kicks through the line and when we got on top in the ruck helped us slow things down and get the right numbers in the right areas.

“We got a couple of 50/50 calls which we haven’t had in recent games.

“We’ve worked on our kicking game and we caused a bit of damage at a tough place to come and I’m really proud to get our first away win of the season.”