ADRIAN Lam was a relieved man after Leigh Leopards got their Super League season up and running with a first win of the campaign in a 54-4 demolition of a woeful Hull FC at the MKM Stadium.

There were try doubles for Ricky Leutele and Ollie Holmes, as Leigh ended a run of three straight defeats by outscoring their poor opponents by nine tries to one.

Lam said: "Obviously I'm very pleased with the outcome, 50 points for us and more importantly four points against.

"We had a few players out today as well. It was a dangerous moment for us before the game.

"We needed that from our key players, it's always tough to come here and win, especially off the back of none out of three.

"We needed a response from last week's performance. We needed a good performance."

Lam praised Matt Moylan who scored a try and kicked eight conversions and a penalty.

The Leigh coach said: "Matty Moylan had his best game for us, and the list (of good performers) goes on and on. If we continue to do that, more wins will come.

"We've sort of allowed a couple of soft tries in the first three games this season. To hold them only to four at home was going to be difficult.

"Sometimes when you're in a bit of a rut, we will take a lot of confidence out of that."

Lam also praised Holmes, who did not start the game but contributed two tries early in the second half.

Lam said: "That's what this plan's about, we've got to try and get the right people in the positions where we can rely on them when we are short. Holmes has got a lot of experience behind him and he's a great talker in the dressing room."

Leigh dominated from the off with tries from Umyla Hanley and Josh Charnley before Tex Hoy reduced the arrears.

Further tries from Leutele, Robbie Mulhern and Ben McNamara saw Leigh well on top at the break.

Holmes added two tries early in the second period, and Moylan dived in before Leutele's second took the visitors past 50 points near the end.

Tony Smith admitted his side had paid the price for a poor start to the game.

He said: "A tough day at the office. It was a poor performance from our team.

"We've done it the hard way to go about winning matches and it has caught up with us today.

"We looked flat early, and we just didn't respond in the right way. Just some things there that showed a bit of fatigue or we've lost a bit of spirit because of that early try. We got done badly around our ruck area. It was a real flat and jaded sort of performance.

"I think the players were up for the game, it flattened them out after an error happened early on.

"We've made a couple of errors in some soft starts, and it was the last thing we needed, we needed to get off to a good start.

"Leigh are an attacking team and I think everybody admires the way they attack. We gave them enough room and they can really hurt you. Our pride got knocked early and it was hard to restore.

"Sometimes you need to get a kick up the backside and we got that."