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Leigh Centurions owner Derek Beaumont has outlined his plans for the Club in his programme notes for the Halifax game on Friday evening.

The Centurion, Leigh Centurions' 84-page programme will be on sale as usual priced at £3.00, but excerpts from Derek's column are set below:

Given this is our last home game of the season I thought it appropriate to look back over the season and at the same time let our sponsors and fans know where I am at personally in terms of stability for the club. It could prove not to be our last game here at LSV should we be involved in the Million Pound Game with a home tie but as that is not known I will take the opportunity now.

The Warrington game was the worst I have watched this season. It was a poor game and it was like watching seventeen people commit suicide. We won the game more times than we needed to get wins in the Qualifiers, it was painful. We could have prevented every try, we gave three tries at least from terrible errors. Over the Pennines Hull KR had beaten Widnes and secured their return to Super League and I am particularly pleased for Neil Hudgell and the fans of Hull KR as they came out in droves to support him and buy season tickets once they got relegated which was his obvious motivator to keep funding the shortfall. Tim Sheens deserves huge credit for what he has achieved with the squad he has had and how he has used it. I genuinely am pleased for them and know exactly the relief they will all be feeling. It’s like walking on sunshine.

As they say, one man’s gain is another man’s loss and it remains to be seen who will be relegated to the Championship. London have been playing very well and still have an opportunity albeit against two Super League teams in ourselves and Widnes. One thing is for sure at least one of us will lose our Super League status.

So where does that leave us? Well I have thought long and hard on this one. In 2005 after getting promoted into Super League and seeing it not sustainable I walked away. Whilst I don’t have an appetite for the Championship I won’t walk away again at this stage as I still believe that this Club can become an established Super League club for many years and I am not giving that vision up after a setback.

We have proven we can add to the competition by being competitive in our first year and not finishing bottom. We have met all the minimum standards including attendance and have had a positive impact at the club owners’ meetings, building friendships and business relationships that fellow owners want to see continue.

Whilst the Super League structure remains uncertain at this stage along with any parachute payments and indeed our Super League status what isn’t uncertain and I can say with absolute clarity is I am going nowhere.

I haven’t given up at anything in my life and have had many setbacks personally and in business but I don’t give in. As long as this town supports the Club I will support it. If the fans stay with us and still buy their season tickets and the sponsors still support as they have then I will maintain my support and keep us spending the cap with a team that will come straight back even if the structure doesn’t change to include us.

I have already recruited some quality additions to the playing roster and have other irons in fires. I have also added some quality off field proven individuals to take the squad to another level and I have no intentions of going backwards.

I have always taken the positives out of any situation and if we do go down we will have the opportunity to build again. We won’t be finished, we will come back stronger. That I can assure you.

Knowing how you will deal with every eventuality gives you certainty in uncertain times and that is a healthy position for this Club. The lads still have it in their hands to perform and keep themselves in Super League, whether that’s finishing third, which is still possible or playing home or away in the Million Pound Game and I believe in them to achieve the goal of maintaining their Super League status and I will keep ‘Beleighving’ in them until the final hooter tells me otherwise.

I would also like to thank each and every fan who has contributed to this Club however great or small, be it in money or time and to all the sponsors whom are a vital lifeline to this club the heartbeat of this town.

It isn’t a case of who watches the most games or who spends the most money as a person spending £20 a year percentage wise could be investing more than someone spending £100k. It is about contributing what you can, supporting through the tough times believing that doing so will bring better times ahead. That is what has got Hull KR back to where they want to be and it is what will get this Club where it deserves to be over the years whether it stays in Super League this year or not.

I have a motto in my business: TEAM- Together Everyone Achieves More. If we stick together, owners, directors, sponsors, volunteers and fans alike we WILL take this Club onto great things, no matter how many storms we come across, we will steer this ship to its destination.

The full version of Derek's Column will be published as usual in this Friday's Match Day programme. Make sure you pick up your copy at the Leigh Vs Halifax game on Friday night (8pm kick off), priced at only £3.00

Thank you Derek. It means a lot that you are standing by our great Club. I will be doing the same by buying a season ticket next year and by keeping up my Leigh Lottery and LISA subscriptions.
Never surrender. Never give up hope.

Over the last few months I personally have slowly been losing interest in the Club,mainly down to ill health,but also by some terrible performances on field,as well as 2 good friends passing away , this message from Derek has filled me with renewed optimism,and I will be renewing my season ticket as soon as possible,hopefully for watching the Centurions in SL , but wherever we will play I will have my ticket.
Well done Derek ,thanks for your previous investments, hopefully the next group of players can do the business, it's obvious from the above message that Derek hurts just as much as we do if not more when we lose.
Let's raise the food off the LSV on Friday and show the lads we still Be leigh ve.

I know you are good at throwing plates in the air but 'raise the food'?

We'll be in for our season tickets as always.

I appreciate the timely message from the owner - hopefully that will alleviate any feelings of uncertainty.

Meanwhile, here's hoping that this squad can still retain our SL status.

My typing is getting worse

it should be raise the roof

.

Well Done DB , without your passion and investment we wouldn't have a club!

The difference between Hull KR's improvement and Leigh's regression. The coach? Perhaps Derek is now reconsidering his loyalty stance on this. Have Leigh underachieved this year, taking into account the severe injuries and suspensions?

One interesting part of the statement was........

I have already recruited some quality additions to the playing roster, =#FF0000and have other irons in fires.

I wonder what that could be?

One thing that worries me about this statement is this "As long as this town supports the Club I will support it. If the fans stay with us and still buy their season tickets and the sponsors still support as they have then I will maintain my support and keep us spending the cap with a team that will come straight back even if the structure doesn’t change to include us."

I hope that Derek doesn't think that the 5500 home fans that watch us in Superleague will continue to watch us in the championship. The reality is that we will drop about 2000 home fans straight away. Along with the fact that the largest away following tends to be around 300, you are looking at sub 4k gates for the majority of games in the Championship.

Now Derek could go one of two ways with this. 1) carry on pumping money into the club and try to increase the crowds through marketing and ticket initiatives, or 2) he could do what is mate Marwan has done and blaim the fans for not backing the club and further alienate the fans that do go to the championship games. This will ultimately mirror what is happening at Salford, that has seen a week on week drop in attendances despite having an entertaining team competing at the top of the leauge.

I hope he takes the former stance.

Looking in from the outside thats how I read it. He praised our (HKR) club and fans but I saw it as almost a gauntlet throw to your fans to do something similar.

I thought the tone was a bit defeatist when you're not dead and buried yet, he sounded resigned to the drop and is looking for a groundswell of support if that happens.

Would your fans sign back up in numbers, I honestly thought we'd drop a couple of 1000 but was surprised at the resolve of a lot to fork out for the full price pass and equal if not better our previous season pass sales. I could guarantee had we not gone up this year then baring a miracle we would have lost that 2k for next

Never give up, it is in the blood.

Regardless of where Leigh RLFC play their rugby and whilst I still have air in my lungs i will be there.

This club has been with me every step of my life.

Lets get the job we started this year done !

Yes, but your clubs fall from grace is a complete different scenario. You had a decade to become stable,we got 12 months.

Big difference..

Great stuff DB! Hope the response you want is forthcoming, but congratulations anyway

I don't doubt there is but we were in a very similar place to what Widnes seem to be in. Apathy seemed to have set in, we'd had a steady decline over 3 years (only lifted by wembley, and that ended up a disaster)

Fans were already grumbling and dissatisfied with the on field product. Lots of injured players and no quality back up. Their forum is a carbon copy of ours from 2016.

In some ways our decade of 'stability' worked against us and made us complacent. I actually think out of all the clubs likely to be in the MPG, Leigh have the best chance to bounce back if the worst happens.

Absolutely correct

Its getting tougher by the hour for us, we are losing bodies and, confidence! We are still awaiting the luck that apparently 'goes around' ! The last ten minutes against yourselves was filled with official 'clangers' to our cost and, at Warrington last week we suffered another late official error!
Hopefully, we get all the official errors in our favour in the remaining games

Spectators only acknowledge the perceived wrong calls against their club. After every match fans could swap instances when their team received a bad call. Blaming the ref is pointless and fruitless.

The more experienced spectator will see wrong calls for both teams. Do you fall into that category?

The biggest "kick in the teeth" so far is the side HKR have picked for tomorrow. I don't blame them: they've won their matches and are entitled to do it but it rather devalues the whole Qualifier system when something like this can happen at such a vital stage. The RFL need to look at devising a system where this sort can't happen.

Of course we shouldn't have got to the stage where we have to rely on others but "C'est la vie" as they say in Perpignan.

HKR winning 5 from 5 comes with an added perk of they can now do what they hell they like.

If Sheens wants to take a closer look at some of his young or fringe players to aid his planning for SL then so be it.

If we would have won 5 from 5 we could have done likewise , and we did last year.

Look at the Batley side, game 6 with the likes of young Foster in the hooking role and the final game at Leeds with some departees only selected for a final farewell in a Leigh shirt.

Out of interest, out much did an adult HKR season ticket cost this season?

He's picked a squad to beat Cats. I dont see a problem.. Better play from Fev last week would have seen them with the win,and that was with 5 players missing.

Think it was £228. Was an option to take a 25% discount and pay £175 but most paid full price.

Wasn't there a subtle difference in that scenario Harold? If Batley had beaten us (and Leeds did) it didn't affect who would/wouldn't be in the MPG. If HKR's comparatively inexperienced side roll over tomorrow, it will be to the huge benefit of one of the contenders to avoid the MPG and to the huge detriment of the other two.