By Matt Lawton
January 24 2009

Leigh Genesis suffered their heaviest defeat of the season after they were put to the sword by fellow strugglers Matlock Town in the UniBond Premier League.

Fresh from Tuesday night's disappointing 2-0 defeat away to local rivals Prescot Cables, Leigh manager Lee Merricks responded by fielding a particularly attack-minded side at Causeway Lane, with forwards Ross Thaker and Chris McCaughtrie restored to the side, while Alex Cunliffe dropped back in to midfield, with recent signing Kyle Lambert on the substitutes bench after making his full debut on Tuesday following his arrival from League Two side Rochdale.

Merricks' attacking choice looked likely to pay off as Leigh dominated the opening exchanges, unlucky to go ahead as early as the fifth minute when McCaughtrie's attempt to scramble home Steve Settle's free kick was cleared off the line by a well-placed Matlock defender.

A smart exchange between Settle and McCaughtrie led to the latter firing straight at the goalkeeper, while Phil Marsh shot narrowly wide of the target from a Settle corner as Leigh largely dominated in terms of territory and possession.

However, they failed to take advantage of such domination and fell behind in avoidable circumstances on twenty minutes when they failed to effectively clear a Matlock corner, the ball eventually reaching Jamie Jackson to fire past Genesis goalkeeper Danny Morton.

Conceding a killer first goal proved to be Leigh's undoing in recent defeats to Eastwood Town and Prescot, so it came as little surprise to see Matlock's lead doubled eight minutes later when Aden Flint prodded home a rebound after Morton had done superbly to block a header from point-blank range, before Matlock scored their third on thirty seven minutes, Morton blocking Jackson's original strike, only to allow Nathan Benger's rebound to creep agonisingly beneath him and over the line.

Five minutes in to the second half and the scoreline began to reach rout proportions when Dene Cropper raced on to a through ball before firing past Morton, with Matlock's fifth goal arriving through Benger's second strike of the afternoon with twenty seven minutes remaining.

Genesis front man Phil Marsh thumped the post with a late free kick, but even that didn't hit the net as Leigh prepared for Tuesday night's visit of FC United of Manchester to the Leigh Sports Village Stadium in the worst possible fashion.

Leigh Genesis; Danny Morton, Richmond Botchey, Kris King, Chris Page, Ben McHugh (Nia Bayunu), Nick Linford (Kyle Lambert), Ross Thaker, Alex Cunliffe, Chris McCaughtrie (David Hill), Phil Marsh, Steve Settle