After being dumped out of the FA Trophy at home to Workington last weekend, a daunting pre-Christmas trip to one of the division's perennial front runners was probably the last thing that Steve Bleasdale was hoping for as he adjusted his formation to a more defensive one in order to cope with Kettering's attacking threat, with Lee Unsworth acting as an anchor between midfield and the back four, with Mark Smyth left as a lone striker in a 4-1-4-1 formation.

The defensive nature of RMI's formation meant that Smyth had little chance to excel in what was proving to be a rather isolated position in trying to latch on to hopeful long balls or feed off the scraps of any defensive mistakes, although the former Liverpool and Bangor City striker went about his work admirably in closing down Kettering's defenders when they were in possession.

Unsurprisingly, it was the hosts that had the first chance on goal when Tim Dittmer was called upon to make a routine save from a David Bridges header, with the ex-Radcliffe goalkeeper making it look a whole lot more difficult with a somewhat dramatic dive across his goal.

Dittmer was beaten after just twenty minutes but midfielder Robin Gibson was perfectly placed to clear Gary Mills' shot off the line.

With the home crowd growing increasingly frustrated at their side's failure to break down RMI's stubborn rearguard, the first half could be considered to be a job well done as the sides went in level at the break.

The hosts were again the first to have a goalscoring chance early in the second period when Mark Rawle fired a shot wildly over the crossbar when in a terrific position just twelve yards from goal, before Gibson again found himself in the perfect position on the line to clear another Rawle shot.

On the hour mark, Leigh came within an inch of taking the lead when the impressive Smyth finally got the chance to run at goal that he'd be working for when latching on to a misplaced Kettering pass and breaking clear, only for his shot to smash against the underside of the crossbar and bounce away from danger, with Poppies goalkeeper Lee Harper well beaten.

Leigh were lucky to escape the concession of a penalty shortly afterwards when the referee over ruled his linesman who was flagging for a spot kick when David Bridges was felled in the penalty area before Craig Westcarr's free kick from the left deceived everyone and bounced against the foot of Dittmer's right hand post.

It took until the final sixteen minutes before RMI's defence was finally breached with devastating effect when Mark Rawle crossed from deep on the left flank for David Bridges to plant his header firmly past Dittmer and reignite Kettering's hopes of climbing further up the table, with promotion rivals Southport seeing their game at Stalybridge fall victim to the weather.

After holding out magnificently for so long, all of Leigh's hard work had been undone and, with their confidence shattered, it took only another four minutes for Kettering to double their lead when a left wing cross from substitute Jean-Paul Marna allowed Bridges to tap home his second of the game at the back post after Dittmer had saved superbly with his legs to deny Mark Rawle a couple of minutes earlier.

With four minutes left, Kettering had established a three goal lead as Rawle slid the ball past Dittmer, with the Leigh goalkeeper performing heroics in added time to prevent any further goals.

The defensive effort of the first seventy four minutes of the encounter will provide plenty of heart for Bleasdale and the RMI faithful, but the hope is that more chances can be created at the other end as the division's lowest scorers continue to struggle in front of goal ahead of the Boxing Day visit to Hilton Park of mid-table Workington.

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