Gleeson, the Warrington hooker, put pen to paper on the pitch at half time in last night's televised National League One clash with Leigh - a hectic encounter Fax finally won 34-22 - capping a frantic afternoon of negotiations.

The 26-year-old, who only popped up on the club's radar yesterday morning, is effectively a replacement for Sean Penkywicz, who has been told he needs surgery to finally fix a hand injury sustained in the round two win at Dewsbury way back on Easter Monday.

Calland has been understandably secretive over his skipper's fitness recently, but finally admitted he had been playing in pain all year.

"Sean has a broken scaphoid, he had a few weeks rest and it did not heal, so he has tried to play with it," said Calland.

"But he had a bone scan and there's a two millimetre crack in it that needs pinning otherwise he could need really major surgery.

"Hopefully, he will be back for the play offs.

"I am absolutely over the moon about Mark though, he is potentially the best signing we have made since me and Martin Hall came to the club.

"Him and Sean are very similar - very quick, very sharp.

"He performs well in Super League, so he'll be good for us.

"He didn't fit into Warrington's plans, but he certainly fits into mine."

On the field, Fax returned to the top of the league ladder in dramatic fashion, storming 20-0 up against Neil Kelly's side before a combination of their own adventure and some freakish injuries saw the Centurions close the gap to 24-22.

Penkywicz grabbed a winner in the closing stages, but victory came at a cost, with the departures of centre Jon Goddard (torn bicep), David Larder (broken jaw), Miles Greenwood (dead leg) and Dana Wilson (suspected broken arm) leaving Fax to finish the game with 12 men.

"We had some freak injuries," said Calland, who praised the atmosphere generated by a near 3,000 crowd.

"Dave and Jon went off at the same time, Dana has broken his arm we think and Miles had a really bad dead leg.

"That meant we had all our props on at once late in the game and they are all big units.

"We had no interchanges left so we played the last 10 minutes or so with 12 men and that told on us.

"We looked completely shot and I must admit I was biting my nails.

"We were guilty of overplaying it a bit.

"We need to learn to grind our sets out, because we were down around 40 per cent completions again.

"I coach them to play football, but it's got to be calculated football.

"If it's not on, you don't throw the pass, you get them on the next play.

"Last night, we were looking for the miracle ball all the time.

"It must have made good TV though."