It was a bottom half of the table four pointer as Hull FC took on the Leigh Leopards as ninth travelled to tenth as both sides looked for their third win of the season and a jump up the league table.
The Leopards won last time out but the Airlie Birds have lost their last three. Both sides were keen for the win to get the lift of a win and move towards the top half of the table.
The bookies made the home side the favourites and had given Leigh a four-point start in the handicap coupon, but it was too nervous sides, and anything could happen.
Leigh opened their account on five when a Lachlan Lam pass was taken and grounded by Kai O´Donnell who carved his way through the broken defence to score. Ben Reynolds added the conversion for 6-0.
The second try came a couple of minutes later, this time Josh Charnley taking the delayed Lam pass for a walk in try with the FC defence in disarray. Reynolds was on target again for 12-0 after eight minutes. It was looking like a long afternoon ahead for the Black & Whites.
On thirteen Charnley was in again, this time after a cut-out ball from Gareth O´Brien. It was way too easy for Leigh, Hull simply not at the races. Reynolds made his first mistake of the afternoon with the boot.
Jake Clifford had a try ruled out on fifteen minutes for shepherding, the celebrating Hull crowd were quickly plunged back into silence.
A Brad Dwyer break was the platform for Hull´s first try. Out of nowhere a pass was stripped and the ball was picked up by Davy Litten who went thirty to the line to score an acrobatic try. Jake Clifford added the conversion from wide for 6-16.
Leigh were forcing the Black & Whites into fierce defence but they held their line until Ligi Sao was sin-binned for a high tackle a few seconds before the interval. As the half time hooter sounded Reynolds tried to kick the goal but his effort was wide.
Hull survived the opening ten minutes of the second half with twelve men but as they returned to full complement they conceded a penalty, referee Thaler putting them on a team warning. Reynolds opted to kick for goal and added a penalty to extend the lead to twelve points.
On fifty-five Ligi Sao received his second yellow card of the game, this time for pushing a player off the ball. On the next play Charnley completed his hat-trick as he ran over the top of his marker to score. Reynolds couldn´t add the conversion, putting his kick across the front of the sticks.
Out of nowhere the Airlie Birds were in again when Andre Savelio swatted his way through the Leigh defence before finding Clifford to take the offloads and canter in under the sticks. The Hull half-back added the conversion for 12-22.
Dwyer knocked on in the act of scoring on sixty-eight, seemingly denying the crowd a grandstand finish. But two minutes later a quick tap from Dwyer went to Liam Sutcliffe who powered over for the third Hull try of the afternoon. Clifford put his conversion wide, the margin six points with eight minutes remaining.
Leigh kicked a penalty, thanks to the boot of Reynolds, with five minutes remaining to extend the lead to eight points, enough to take the win an the crucial two points.
This was a crazy game. Crazy that Leigh sprinted to a sixteen to nil lead, crazy that Hull edged themselves back into the game, crazy that Hull played some of their best rugby when down to twelve players, and crazy that the winning margin for Leigh was just eight points in a game which they dominated from start to finish. It was the fourth consecutive loss for the Black & Whites who are now starting to get embroiled in a dogfight at the bottom, Leigh continue to delight their fans, and confound the pundits, and cement their position in the Super League.
Hull FC: Hoy, Swift, Tuimavave, Sutcliffe (T), Litten (T), Lovodua, Clifford (T, 2G), Brown, Dwyer, Satae, Savelio, Griffin, Fash. Subs: Cator, Sao (SB on 39 & 55), Scott, Taylor. 18th Man: Evans.
Leigh Leopards: O´Brien, Briscoe, Hardaker, Leutele, Charnley (3T), Reynolds (4G), Lam, Amone, Ipape, Mulhern, Shorrocks, O´Donnell (T), Asiata. Subs: Nakubuwai, Seumanufagai, Holmes, Davis. 18th Man: Chamberlain.
Half-Time: 6-16.
Full-Time: 16-24.
Score Progression: 0-4, 0-6, 0-10, 0-12, 0-16, 4-16, 6-16, (SB) : HT : 6-18, (SB), 6-22, 10-22, 12-22, 16-22, 16-24 : FT.
Lead Exchanges: Leigh.
Referee: Ben Thaler.
