Keswick conceded a late try and slipped to their first defeat of the season in North Two West.
But there was hint of a forward pass in the crucial try which gave hosts Leigh a 21-17 victory.
After only two minutes the Keswick pack found itself under pressure in the scrum and gave away a penalty which the home side converted to take an early 3-0 lead.
Keswick fought back immediately and, following up a kick ahead, Chris Potter won the foot race to give his side the lead with an unconverted try.
Leigh attacked from the restart, down the right hand side, but their kick through went dead and Keswick dropped out.
In attempting to run the ball out of defence Keswick gave away a penalty which Leigh converted on nine minutes to re-take the lead.
As the half developed Keswick’s difficulties became apparent, the normally sound line-outs misfiring and kicks from hand invariably finding the Leigh full-back who proved to be a fast and elusive opponent.
An altercation in midfield on 20 minutes meant a 10-minute rest for one player from each side as the referee dealt with the issue firmly.
Keswick had an attacking line out in the Leigh 22 but the throw went awry and the home side attacked from deep, with only a last ditch tackle just short of the Keswick try line by debutant Danny Craghill at full-back preventing a certain try.
Keswick’s tackling, normally a strong point, proved inadequate as Leigh kept the ball tight and crossed the gain line more often than the travelling supporters would have liked.
Leigh had the upper hand for most of the first half, culminating on 32 minutes with a run down the left to score an unconverted try.
Keswick were able to reduce the deficit to 10-8 just before half time as Billy Thompson converted a penalty on the Leigh 10-metre line.
The second half saw a resurgent Keswick spend the first 30 minutes of it camped in the home side’s half.
The visitors’ scrum began to hold and the Leigh pack was penalised, leading to a penalty 30 metres out which Thompson converted on 48 minutes to bring the scores level.
A further penalty five minutes later was again converted by Thompson for Keswick to retake the lead.
A further penalty attempt by Thompson, this time from some 45 metres went just wide.
Handling errors and strong Leigh tackling prevented Keswick from crossing the gain line.
On 65 minutes the Leigh tight head was shown a yellow card for a high tackle and as he had been yellow carded earlier he was then shown a red card.
From the penalty Thompson again converted to extend the Keswick lead to 17-11.
Despite being down a man, Leigh regained scrum dominance for a while before Keswick were able to find a way to hold them.
From a penalty which took Keswick to an attacking line out on the Leigh 22, possession was lost as the ball was overthrown and the home side attacked, winning a penalty for offside which they kicked to the corner.
From the line-out they made their first attack of the second half on 76 minutes to score just to the right of the posts to take the score to 16-17. Surprisingly the conversion attempt went wide and Keswick still had the lead.
However, Leigh retained the ball from the kick-off attacking through their backs. A forward pass went un-seen and Leigh scored on 78 minutes to lead and see-out the game, leaving Keswick with one losing bonus point.
