On a blustery Yorkshire afternoon, Barnsley-based referee Mr. Newman and his assistant infuriated Leigh's travelling support as early as the seventh minute after they both missed Bradford left back Chris Stabb control a right wing Scott Sephton cross with his hand when inside his own penalty area.

Leigh survived a big scare on fifteen minutes when one-time Bolton Wanderers striker Andy Campbell found himself clean through on Dean Porter's goal after beating the Genesis offside trap, only to possibly suggest as to why he no longer plays in the Premier League or Championship and instead in the UniBond Premier League when he failed to even hit the target, sliding the ball wide of goal.

That miss was excused just four minutes later when the hosts somewhat controversially took the lead when Porter appeared to clutch Chris Hall's header from in front of the line, only for the referee to rule that it had actually crossed the line, indeed to the surprise of much of the near-500 crowd.

That proved to be a killer blow for Leigh and they were two goals behind less than a minute later, again in somewhat unfortunate circumstances, when Campbell's somewhat scuffed shot look a wild deflection off the leg of Hall and, catching the wind, looped over Porter in to the net.

On thirty three minutes, Genesis managed to halve the deficit when Kyle Lambert headed his first goal for the club, meeting Scott Sephton's cross at the back post to beat former Leigh goalkeeper Jon Worsnop in the Avenue goal.

The second period saw Avenue looking to contain their one goal advantage rather than press for any further goals, with Leigh dominating much of the possession without managing to pose any particular threat.

The hosts had a golden opportunity to seal their victory shortly after the hour mark when Genesis defender Alex Cunliffe clumsily attempted to tackle winger Jamie Price, with the latter making the most of the possibly minimal contact to earn his a penalty. However, in what Leigh might have seen as just deserts for the hosts, Mark Bett ballooned the resultant spot kick wildly over Porter's crossbar.

This prompted Leigh in action, with Lambert unlucky to not grab a second goal after showing terrific pace to beat right back Stephen Downs to Karl Brown's precise ball and fire the ball inches wide of the far post, before Brown came within a whisker of grabbing an audacious equaliser when an opportunist forty-five yard strike that deceived Wornsop and bounced only a tiny margin over the bar.

With a strong wind behind them, Leigh pushed forward in search of an equaliser, with Heald forcing a smart low save from Worsnop and the visitors earning a succession of corners and free kicks that continued put Wornsop under pressure.

As it was, Leigh were playing against the clock and ran out of time before they could grab a deserved equaliser, though their much-improved performance will provide plenty of heart ahead of Tuesday's meeting with Nantwich Town at Stainton Park.

Leigh Genesis; Dean Porter, Kris King, Chris Page, Alex Cunliffe, Rob Farrington, Andy Heald, Kyle Lambert (Steve Settle), Karl Brown, Phil Marsh, David Roberts (Martin Ormesher), Scott Sephton

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