Leigh 17 Chester 17

CHESTER’S promotion hopes suffered a setback on Saturday as they were held at Leigh.

Going into the game on the back of a nine-match winning streak in all competitions, Rob Foden’s men were eager to sign off for 2007 by making it a perfect 10.

But Leigh battled hard and earned a share of the spoils with a late try.

Head coach Foden said: “The Leigh players played with passion, which our team sadly lacked on the day.

“If we want to fulfil our ambition of promotion, then the players must realise that every game in the league will now be like a cup final.

“However, we did not lose, and with a two-week Christmas break in the league programme all the players should be refreshed and ready for the new year.”

Chester were 7-0 down after 10 minutes when Leigh’s centre strolled through a gaping hole to touch down under the posts. After Matt Sheen had a try disallowed, Chester began to lose their composure and their annoyance with the referee resulted in them conceding needless penalties.

It went from bad to worse as Leigh scored another try to make it 12-0, but the visitors cut the deficit shortly before half time.

Man-of-the-match Ross White claimed a vital line-out catch and the Chester pack worked as a unit, driving forward to allow Gareth Martin to touch down for an important score. Tom Foden converted from an acute angle to make it 12-7 at the interval.

Within a few minutes of the restart, Chester gained the lead when Sheen went on a powerful run and set up an attacking position. Once again a controlled driving maul from a line-out gave James Whitelock-Wainwright the opportunity to score his second try of the season.

With Foden converting and adding a penalty soon after, Chester led 17-12 and it seemed as though the game was running away from Leigh.

But instead of closing out the game as they should have done, Chester allowed Leigh back into the contest and the hosts scored a try out wide to level up the scores.

After the final whistle, the Chester players had to listen to a few harsh words from Foden before he eventually wished them all a merry Christmas.