Mark Cain is planning to cite Leigh substitute Chris Causey after an ugly incident which marred a bad tempered battle at Huntington Stadium yesterday.

COLLARED: Mark Cain feels the full force of Leigh's tackling as Adam Bristow and Simon Baldwin (scrum cap) nail the York stand-off

The Wasps stand-off appeared to be kicked in the face by Causey while lying on the floor but it was not spotted by referee Ronnie Laughton.

However Cain, who was also on the receiving end of a couple of high tackles, wants Causey, on loan from Warrington, punished for his actions.

"I was trying to slow him down at the play the ball as you do and he just kicked me in the face. I don't mind high tackles, that's part and parcel of the game.

"Sometimes you get caught high but there's no place in the game for kicking a player in the head when he's defenceless. I am going to cite him," said Cain, sporting a cut lip as a result of the incident.

Coach Garry Atkins supported Cain's statement and said: "We will view it and take it from there. I didn't see the incident but the players are all adament that the guy kicked Mark in the head and in my opinion that's the lowest offence possible and, if he did it, he wants severely reprimanding."

Another incident involving Andy Precious and Steve Hill was put on report. They appeared to dump Leigh full-back Stuart Donlan into the ground head first but Atkins was unable to comment.

"I didn't see it 100 per cent. If it was a spear tackle then I'm sure the relevant agencies will deal with it in the right manner.," said Atkins.

He admitted to being "gutted" after York Wasps suffered an agonising 28-22 home defeat.

York were on course for a famous victory when they led 22-16 with less than 10 minutes to go. But two late tries by the visitors broke York's hearts and sent the Centurions storming back to the top of the Northern Ford Premiership.

Atkins, who flies out to Las Vegas tomorrow to get married and misses the next two games, had few complaints about his side's tremendous performance.

He said: "I'm gutted and the lads are gutted. We were the better side in spells but sometimes a class side when they're not playing very well just pip it and they are a class side.

"I just feel we were a little bit shot in the end. We worked tremendously hard but Leigh just added that bit of class and pulled it off which killed us in the end.

"The last home game, apart from when we beat Barrow, was Widnes and they beat us 50-18 and they're not a patch on Leigh which shows how far we've progressed since then.

"It's competitive games like this which we'll learn more from and make sure we build a platform for next year."

After last week's disappointing reverse at Workington, whose victory over Hull KR yesterday handed top spot back to Leigh, Atkins was thrilled his players competed so admirably against genuine title contenders.

"I felt we didn't compete last week. I said that was what we needed to do today and we proved we can play against the best sides. Lady luck just didn't happen for us today but they can hold their heads up and know they can do it against the top sides," said Atkins.

A mistake by Gareth Dobson when he fluffed a Paul Anderson kick allowed Kieron Purtill to score the try which levelled the match for Leigh seven minutes from time.

But Atkins refused to lay any blame for the defeat on the outstanding Wasps scrum-half who was otherwise faultless.

"His mistake let them back into it but that's no slur on Gareth because he was tremendous. Everyone makes mistakes. He's gutted himself. He'll feel devastated that he's let his mates down but he's let no-one down today," he said.

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