There is always a good atmosphere at a Leigh Leopards match.
The floodlights, the music, the supporters and the anticipation as the teams come onto the pitch all contribute to the experience. It is competitive, but it is also family-orientated. You see children wearing their Leigh colours, families attending together and people of different ages sharing the same evening.
That is one of the reasons I enjoy going. Rugby league is obviously about what happens on the pitch, but attending a match is about more than the final score.
Unfortunately, on this occasion, the final score did not go our way.
A below-par performance
I have not listened to the professional post-match analysis, so this is simply how the match appeared to me from where I was sitting.
Leigh seemed below their usual standard. There were moments of effort and physical commitment, but the team never appeared to find the level of performance we have seen from them at their best.
Wakefield took advantage and deserved their victory on the night.
That does not suddenly make Leigh a poor team. Every side has matches when things do not come together. Passes do not quite connect, opportunities are missed and the opposition applies pressure at the right moments.
Sometimes you simply have to accept that your team did not perform well enough.
Was next week's match in their minds?
There is also an unusual element to this result: Leigh and Wakefield play each other again next week.
That made me wonder whether there might have been some tactical thinking involved. Perhaps neither team wanted to reveal everything before the next meeting, or perhaps the forthcoming match was somewhere in the players' minds.
That is only my personal speculation. I do not have any inside information, and I am not claiming that Leigh deliberately lost or did not try.
The players were certainly committed physically. There was even a little bit of fisticuffs on the pitch as tempers briefly rose, showing how competitive the match had become.
It may simply be that Wakefield played better and Leigh had an off night. The next match might tell us more.
What matters now is how Leigh respond.
Close to the action
One of the benefits of where I was sitting was being very close to the pitch.
The photographs show just how near the players were as the tackles went in. From that position, you appreciate the speed and physical strength involved far more than you do when watching on television.
You hear the contact, see how quickly the defensive line moves and notice the work taking place away from the ball.
The pictures also capture different parts of the evening: the floodlit stadium, the crowd filling the stands, Leigh defending near the line and the physical exchanges between the two teams.
Even though it was not the result we wanted, it was still a proper night of rugby league.
A family-orientated atmosphere
What stood out once again was the atmosphere around the ground.
Professional sport can sometimes appear increasingly distant from ordinary supporters, but rugby league still retains a strong connection with its local communities.
At Leigh, it feels like people are part of something.
Families attend together. Children grow up wearing the colours and learning the names of the players. Supporters see familiar faces in the stands, talk about previous matches and debate what the team should do next.
There is passion, disappointment and sometimes frustration, but there is also a shared sense of belonging.
A family can attend the same match and each person may experience something slightly different—but those memories can last much longer than the result.
Supporting a team means accepting the bad nights
It is easy to support a team when everything is going well. The real test comes after a disappointing performance.
I am not going to pretend Leigh played brilliantly when I do not believe they did. They were below their best, Wakefield deserved to win and an 8–19 home defeat is disappointing.
But supporting Leigh is not based upon one result.
It is about having a season ticket, turning up, enjoying the atmosphere and sharing the highs and lows with thousands of other supporters.
You can criticise a performance without turning against the team. In fact, honest criticism is part of being a supporter. You know what the team can produce, which is precisely why it is frustrating when they fall short of that standard.
Next week may be a different story
The good thing about rugby league is that another match soon arrives.
In this case, Leigh have the opportunity to face Wakefield again almost immediately.
Perhaps the result will be different. Perhaps Leigh will produce the performance we know they are capable of. Perhaps we will discover that this first encounter influenced the tactics used in the next one.
Or perhaps Wakefield will once again prove difficult to overcome.
That uncertainty is part of sport.
For now, the record will show that Wakefield won 19–8. They were the better team on the night, and Leigh will need to improve.
We lost the match, but the evening was still about more than the final score. And next week, we get to do it all again.