Though centre back Rob Marsh-Evans was missing from the home defence as he began a two match suspension following his sending off against Gainsborough Trinity a fortnight ago, home boss Steve Bleasdale was able to welcome back midfielder Andy Heald from suspension, while defender Matt Lawlor made his second appearance of a one month loan from Championship side Blackpool.

After a recent resurgence in form, Barrow have faint hopes of making the play-offs, and those ambitions weren't done any harm after 37 minutes when Matt Henney took advantage of some slack marking in the RMI defence to head home a cross from the left hand side after Leigh goalkeeper Richard Mottram had been called upon to make a smart save to deny the visitors earlier in the game.

The visitors doubled their lead shortly before the hour mark when a left sided free kick was flicked on for former Morecambe striker Jason Walker to nudge the ball past Mottram.

After ‘winning' the second half of Tuesday night's 5-2 loss at Burscough, RMI mounted another valiant attempt at a comeback late on when a superb Smyth dead ball strike halved the deficit, but despite the introduction from the bench of top scorer Mark Smyth, RMI were unable to snatch an unlikely equaliser and were left to rue missed chances in front of goal.

RMI's next encounter sees them on the cup trail as they travel to Blue Square North rivals Southport on Tuesday evening (7:45pm) for a semi final tie in the Lancashire FA Co-Operative Challenge Trophy before a vital trip to fellow league strugglers Hinckley United the following Saturday.

Leigh RMI; Richard Mottram, Paul Booth, Jonathan Goulding, Matt Lawlor, Luke Prosser, Andy Heald (Andy Wright), Brad Maylett, Gavin Salmon (Neil Carroll), Steve Settle (Mark Smyth), Robin Gibson, Richard Chetcuti

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