1) 71/2 celebrations were in full swing the following day as it seemed the whole population of the town welcomed the team back that Sunday evening, but there were rumours already about that King Alex was going to leave the club for sleeping giant Warrington. And who could blame him? He had allegedly asked for money to strengthen the team, which was not forthcoming.
I have to agree with him as although there was a good first team, there was no strength in depth and was not a young side, although you had to respect the board who did not want to bankrupt the club and had done a fantastic job. Alex went onto further glory taking with him Dave Chisnall and a year later Kevin Ashcroft, both G.B. internationals. You couldn’t blame Chrissy in particular, as he had been controversially suspended and missed the final. He was a prop before his time with speed and a classy sidestep!!
So Pete Smethurst was left to pick up the pieces as player coach, and the team started off slowly, with one highlight being a win over the tourists New Zealand 10-5 with tries by Collins and Ferguson, but only in front of 4,000. The tourists went on to defeat G.B. In the test series, so this was a good team display. Onto the challenge cup as defending champions and a comfortable 1st round win over Workington 19-4, but only to be followed by a desperately disappointing home defeat by Swinton in the second round by 4 points to 3, a try by Stuart aaFerguson in front of the highest crowd of the season over 12,000.
The rest of the season petered out with a drop from 4th to 16th with 17 wins and losers. This meant a trip to top side Leeds in the top 16 playoffs and a predictable 40-2 thrashing.
2) 72/3 Veteran Yorkshireman Les Pearce took over the coaching reins, but the season started off with 6 successive defeats, but then the team went on a run in one of their favourite competitions the BBC 2 Floodlit Trophy in a march to the final that included a rare away win at Wigan. The opponents at Central Park ware cup specialists Widnes, but in a sign of the times less than 5,000 bothered to turn up. Only 5 players from the 71 side remained-Collins, Grimes,Fiddler, Lester and Tony Barrow. It wa a war of attrition with a scoreless first half with a Jethro and Big Jin Mills sent off after a disagreement!! Then just after half time workaholic hooker Derek Clarke deftly sent a well judged grubber kick to the corne where Aussie Graeme Lawson dived over to confirm our second win in this competition. A penalty added by Jimmy Fiddler earned the 5-0 victory. The challenge cup ended in another 2nd round exit at home to Wakefield ironically by the same score, but Pearce had done a good job in winning a trophy and finishing 3 places higher in 13th The reward was a top 16 away trip to Saints and a battling display in losing 29-14.
3) 73/4 A disappointing start to the season saw 8 defeats in 11 matches, but included a barely believable double over Wigan!! This was also a tricky time for them and less than 8,000 saw a Leigh win 12-9 at Central Park and then less than 7,000 to see a 15-2 win at H.P. a month later with 6 Fiddler goals. It was mainly downhill after this with another losing run of 8 games, before the start of the Challenge cup saw a run of 3 successive home ties which after an easy win over amateurs Kippax, 2 magnificent wins over Widnes 11-7 and St,Helens 11-5 saw us through to a semi final with Fev. At Headingley. The man of the match on both occasions was inspiring Captain Jimmy Fiddler who apart from one goal,scored all the points including a the only try in each match. Now I must admit that he is one of my favourite Leigh players I have seen, a ball playing second rower and prop, look at these statistics:- 72/3 95 goals 6 tries, and 73/4 110 goals, 11 tries both times in sides post Alex Murphy. But back to the Cup and despite a brave performance Leigh went out 21-14. Amazingly the next day both sides were forced to play a previously postponed league match at Post Office Road. Due to injuries the previous day Leigh could barely raise a team, and the Leigh Reporter journalist Brian Gomm had to be named on the bench!! The side subsequently lost 46-7. The last 4 matches were also lost and with the the new structure dictating a first division of 14 and a second of 14, a final position of 15th meant a season in the second division.
4) 74/5 This has to go down as one of the most dispiriting seasons I had ever seen. Les Pearce had been unluckily sacked and replaced internally by trainer Eddie Cheetham. Less than 4 years after the Lancs Cup /challenge cup double the teem were contriving to lose 14 out of 26 games. This was also the days of the 3 day week and power cuts,and Ibthink the nadir occurred on 7 December 1974, with a home league game with Hull (still without the fc). The Leigh board in their wisdom decided to switch home matches from Sundays to Saturday, when all the other sports were in competition. So it came to pass just over 3 years since 15,538 fans watched the 71 cup tie, myself and just 450 others saw 3 Mick Stacey penalty goals saw us through 6-0. In my time before or since have I seen a crowd below 1,000 at a home match. It also showed what a state Hull were in at the time. Although it felt depressing at the time, the one thing the board had invested in was about to bare fruit:- 2 words. - Leigh Colts!!