By Matt Lawton
January 31 2009

Kevin Sanasy’s late goal left Leigh Genesis crestfallen as Worksop snatched all three points in an entertaining relegation battle at Radcliffe Borough’s Stainton Park home.

After entertaining FC United of Manchester in front of over 1,300 spectators in the inaugural fixture at the new Leigh Sports Village Stadium on Tuesday night, Genesis were back ‘on tour' with this home fixture being played at Radcliffe, and it was Leigh that had the first chance of the game on eleven minutes as midfielder Alex Cunliffe picked up a poor Adam Ogden goal kick, only for Worksop goalkeeper Ogden to redeem himself with a terrific save to palm Cunliffe's curling effort wide of goal.

On a breezy Lancashire afternoon, Worksop front man Alex Callery came within a whisker of inadvertently giving his side the lead as his left wing corner caught the wind and deceived Genesis goalkeeper Danny Morton, only to strike the crossbar and rebound away to safety.

Ross Thaker volleyed over the crossbar for Genesis after a Sam Parkinson free kick was cleared in to his path, while Leigh debutant Chris Thompson, signed on a month's loan earlier in the week from Blue Square Premier side Barrow, saw a goal chalked off for offside shortly before the half hour mark.

With both sides keen to push forward and earn vital UniBond Premier League points, Morton had to be at his best to palm away a strike from ex-Leigh midfielder Gareth Holmes, but it proved to be in vain shortly afterwards as Mick Galloway's left-sided delivery was headed past Morton by centre back Tom Jones, giving the Tigers a one goal lead at the break.

Although, in recent fixtures, Leigh's young players have appeared to become quickly disillusioned with their own performance once falling a goal behind, they started the second period in determined fashion and, with the lively Phil Marsh partnering the impressive Thompson in attack, they again came close on 54 minutes when Ogden did well to tip wide an acrobatic Marsh strike that skipped off the ground on it's way towards goal.

It was Marsh again at the hub of proceedings when Leigh finally grabbed a deserved equaliser as he played an incisive ball through the Worksop defence for Thompson to latch on to and shrug off Jones' challenge to fire the ball past Ogden for a well-earned debut strike.

As Leigh began to pile on the pressure, Thompson might have had a hat trick as first his half-volley was deflected wide for a corner before a deflected shot seemed to be looping over Ogden and in to the goal, only for the goalkeeper to react superbly and palm the ball away for a corner whilst falling backwards in what would prove to be a game-changing moment, despite substitute Kyle Lambert's half-volley shaving Worksop's crossbar.

After withstanding such a barrage of attacks, it seemed almost inevitable that Worksop would grab a winning goal, and they did so in somewhat fortuitous fashion with only minutes remaining on the clock when substitute Kevin Sanasy turned his marker and saw his shot trickle agonisingly over the line in front of a jubilant away following.

Lively Tigers winger Chris Adam managed to strike Morton's post late on after being afforded far too much space on the left flank, but Leigh were left to rue missed chances galore ahead of promotion-chasing Hednesford's visit to the Leigh Sports Village Stadium next Saturday (7th February, 3pm kick off).

Leigh Genesis; Leigh Genesis; Danny Morton, Nia Bayunu, Kris King, Chris Page, Ben McHugh, Karl Brown (Kyle Lambert), Ross Thaker, Alex Cunliffe, Chris Thompson, Phil Marsh, Sam Parkinson