IF ever a match was over within two and a half minutes of the kick-off, this was it.

By that time, Leigh - a side packed with Super League experience and one of the favourites for the Northern Ford Premiership title - had run in two tries against a side still seeking their first league win in 11 months.

York had not even touched the ball.

Thankfully, the contest was not to continue in that vain, and the fact York made some kind of game of it after such an awful opening must be a positive for coach Leo Epifania.

Indeed, the final scoreline perhaps flattered Leigh, or at least did a disservice to the effort of the York team.

However, despite being able to extract another positive from a defeat, Epifania's side are still bottom of the table. And although they have not yet faced any of the weaker teams, no points from a possible 14 is not the form of a club with top-nine aspirations.

They did enjoy their first win in 26 games last week, but what new confidence they might have gained from that Challenge Cup success over Milford was effectively nullified by the way yesterday's game began.

Leigh kicked off and the ball, which caught on the strong wind behind them, skimmed passed Scott Yeaman and out for a drop-out, which barely reached 30 yards. Within two plays Adam Bristow powered over.

After the restart, Jon Roper brushed off a few opponents and fed Eric Andrews, who walked in. Neil Turley converted both tries and it was already 12-0.

When York winger Michael Forbes fumbled the ball out for a drop-out on Leigh's next attack, fears of a cricket score followed, but Wasps fought back.

They completed a good set to force a drop-out and, when Chris Morley caught the hard-working Carl Barrow with a high tackle, Jamie Benn had the chance to put York on the scoreboard.

However, the strong wind meant his penalty from 23 metres was always going to be harder than it looked, and the ball went wide.

From the restart, Leigh punted the ball out for another York drop-out and soon enough, Simon Svabic's pass saw Andrew Isherwood burst through, Turley converting from the touchline.

Whereas in recent weeks York's handling had been their downfall, yesterday it was their tackling.

They completed more sets of six and, with prop Steve Hill to the fore, often gained good ground but their defence was not as resolute as it has been.

For Leigh's next two scores, it was decidedly poor.

Mick Docherty's restart for York went out on the full and Leigh gained territory again from the penalty to touch. From the scrum that followed, Bristow picked up and jogged in from 20 yards without a defender laying a hand on him.

Then David Bradbury's off-load, when he seemed to be swallowed up, set up the visitors' fifth try, scored by the speedy Liam Bretherton. It was a fine finish down the flank, outpacing Forbes and Shaun Austerfield and cutting inside full-back Benn, but he should have been stopped.

With Turley goaling everything, Leigh - without doing anything spectacular - had scored 30 points with 25 minutes gone.

Thoughts turned to last season, when York conceded 84 points in both their matches against Leigh. Thankfully, yesterday was not going to be as bad.

Mark Cain - who again made several telling breaks from loose-forward - forced a drop-out with a grubber kick, while Jonny Liddell was held up over the line by three defenders. At the other end, better defending kept out Willie Swann and Bretherton and held Bradbury on his back over the line.

Maybe Leigh took their foot off the gas after the break or maybe the wind played its part. Either way, the hosts deserved to score more than their one try, which came on 52 minutes.

Austerfield's break set up the field position, Docherty burst through and, despite being covered up, off-loaded to scrum-half Yeaman, who stepped outside then in to squeeze over the line, Benn converting.

Forbes could have got his first score for the club following another Austerfield charge but he dropped the ball as he forced his way over, while Austerfield supported another Cain break and passed to Yeaman only for the covering defence to deny the scrum-half what could have been the try of the match.

Cain's short pass also appeared to send Liddell away only for referee Robert Connolly to award a debatable forward pass, while winger Gavin Molloy could not quite get to a long Liddell pass with the line begging.

Towards the end, Cain again linked with Liddell and shot through, passing to the supporting Mick Ramsden for a certain try. However, a defender somehow got under the ball as he tried to ground it.

However, at the other end Leigh benefited from missed tackles to score four second-half tries.

Isherwood took advantage of an overlap down the left, and Andrews benefited from a break on the power-play by Mark McCully to squeeze in the corner.

Then the excellent Swann profited from some controversial refereeing, running a debatable penalty and then being deemed to have touched down as the ball spilled away.

With six minutes left, Swann broke again and as he was tackled by Benn slipped the ball to Bradbury, who touched down. Turley added one conversion against the wind to complete the scoring.

Fact file:

York Wasps:

T: Yeaman (52). C: Benn.

Benn 7, Forbes 5, Austerfield 7, R Lee 6, Molloy 6, Liddell 7, Yeaman 7, Docherty 7, Edwards 6, Hill 8, Barrow 6, Ramsden 6, Cain 8. Subs: Precious 6, Hutchinson 6, Crake 6, A Lee 6.

Sin-binned: None.

Sent off: None.

Leigh:

T: Bristow (1, 15), Andrews (3, 60), Isherwood (12, 49), Bretherton (25), Swann (67), Bradbury (74). C: Turley 6.

Turley, Bretherton, Kendrick, Roper, Andrews, Svabic, Swann, Norman, Hamilton, Bradbury, Anderson, Isherwood, Bristow.

Subs (all used): Morley, Rowley, McCully, Matautia.

Sin-binned: None.

Sent off: None.

HT: 0-30 . Referee: Robert Connolly (Wigan). Att: 680.

Updated: 10:25 Monday, February 04, 2002