A SEVEN-match unbeaten run came to an end at Cotlandswick on Saturday, June 29, when St Albans Centurions went down to Leicester by six points in an epic 32-26 loss.

The defeat opened the door for chief rivals Luton Vipers to snake ahead of them at summit of the Eastern Division league, setting up what is a probable title-decider between the two on Saturday, July 13, in the last round of league fixtures.

Despite the setback, Centurions' spokesman Gavin Willacy remained positive: "Hopefully this defeat will focus everyone for the next two games. Whether we finish top or second is really only a matter of pride the play-off fixtures will be almost identical."

He continued: "We were unlikely to go the whole season undefeated and it was better to lose to Leicester than a team in our division, and another seven-match unbeaten run and we would be in the Grand Final."

At full-strength at the beginning of the match, it only took 15 minutes for the Centurions' game plan to fall apart. After eight minutes, Leicester's Mick Bryant drove over after a drive that left both the St Albans' half-back Ben Hutchinson and hooker Tom Eisenthuth injured in his wake.

Although Hutchinson was only out for 15 minutes, Eisenhuth's injury was more serious, and a dislocated shoulder will end his season.

With their make-up disturbed, the home side did reduce the gap with a penalty from Steve Toon, but the positive was outweighed by the negative as the incident which resulted in the penalty cost them the services of Brian Stokes, who suffered a broken nose.

Leicester then increased their lead with a score from the half-way line, and although Neil McMullen raced over from a tap penalty, the Saints were continuously undone by a poor defensive performance and Toon's uncharacterstic wastefulness with the boot by the end of the game he would have missed four of his six attempts.

But the match was lost at the back, and the slackness of the defense was highlighted after the restart, when Nigel Arismendez waltzed through to score without a Centurion getting near him. Despite the warning, the Leicester forward was allowed to repeat the feat thrice more before the whistle.

This one-man show made a mockery of St Albans' first-half fight-back, which yeilded scores from Hutchinson and Toon, and although John Sayers struck twice more after the break, they could not undo the damage Arismendez had inflicted.

They will hope for an improvement when they travel to Ipswich for a 2.30pm kick-off on Saturday.

July 3, 2002 17:00