Keighley Cougars 0, Leigh Centurions 36 - Battling Keighley coach Steve Deakin was forced to accept his side did not have the firepower to live with Super League aspirants Leigh Centurions in last night's Trans Pennine Cup final at Cougar Park.

The Northern Ford Premiership champions roared to victory against a Cougars outfit which has been ravaged in recent weeks due to financial restraints.

They had no answer as Leigh ran in 20 points in a blistering 35-minute spell and three tries in the last quarter wrapped up a comprehensive win for the visitors. The side has shown great spirit to clinch wins over Hunslet and Sheffield recently but Deakin admitted: "Leigh were too big, too fast too powerful and too good.

"We put in an outstanding effort and as a coach all you can do is ask the team play to the best of their abilities and they did.

"One thing stands out in rugby league and that is if you make mistakes you'll get punished by quality opposition. Leigh are the most clinical team outside Super League with too many strike players for us."

The writing was on the wall from Leigh's opening attack when Adam Bristow sliced the Cougars' defence wide open before man-of-the-match Simon Baldwin linked to send Neil Turley racing over.

Paul Anderson then grabbed two quick tries, following up his own optimistic grubber and then racing in off a smart set play following a booming 40/20 from Simon Svabic.

Willie Swann took a quick tap penalty to dive over, and with Svabic landing two conversions to effectively kill off the Cougars' challenge before it had begun.

Keighley had been their own worst enemies at times in the first half. They committied too many errors early in the tackle count and, as coach Steve Deakin identified, you can't do that against quality opposition.

They were also indisciplined at times and dropped off too many tackles as they struggled to get to the pace of the game.

Deakin sorted a lot of that out at the break and the second half was certainly more competitive with both teams losing players to the sin-bin.

Leigh eventually lost Dave Whittle permanently after he struck Rob Roberts five minutes from time and he could really be in trouble after he gave a two-fingered gesture to the stand following his sin-binning for punching Carlos Sanchez who was Keighley's first to go.

Skipper Jason Ramshaw also got the yellow card with Anderson after the battling Cougars' skipper had been hit off the ball by Swann.

And Leigh's veteran prop Tim Street, pictured, also clashed with the Keighley pack. With Leigh having the game in the bag it all seemed a bit unnecessary.

The Cougars did manage to make a game of it without really ever threatening to score. James Simeonovich went close and Roberts was held up over the line but that was about it.

The Northern Ford Premiership leaders went on to complete victory with three tries in seven minutes near the end as the Cougars tired.

Given Keighley's trials and tribulations this was a decent performance against a very good Leigh team, who look just about ready to step up to Super League.

Cougars: Hogg; Hobson, Hooson, Smith, Tomlinson; Ashton, Antonik; Stephenson, Ramshaw, Hannah, Roberts, Simeonovich, Sanchez. Subs: (all used) Morphet, Kirk, Senior, Best.

Leigh: Turley; Ingram, Anderson, Fairclough, Watts; Svabic, Swann; Street, Hamilton, Whittle, Baldwin, Kendrick, Bristow. Subs: (all used) Leatham, Bradbury, Duffy, Bretherton.

Referee: Richard Silverwood (Mirfield)

Man of the match: Simon Baldwin.

Attendance: 2,626