By Matt Lawton
September 11 2010

A dramatic Rick Gleave winner, deep in to stoppage time, saw nine man Leigh Genesis progress to the FA Cup Second Qualifying Round with a breathless victory over Vodkat Premier League side Rossendale United in an incredible First Qualifying Round tie at Dark Lane.

The hosts equalised on thirty one when Daniel Doherty beat the Leigh offside trap to cross for Jason Hart to level the scores at the break.

Within just three minutes of the restart, Leigh restored their lead when Andy Heald surged forward and delivered a thumping strike from twenty five yards that the goalkeeper only parried as far as Eastham to grab his second of the afternoon, though Eastham's match was to finish only four minutes later when he pulled up with a hamstring injury to be replaced by Rick Gleave.

Rossendale saw a goal disallowed before Leigh grabbed a two goal cushion on sixty one minutes when a Paul Williams cross found John Lawless to head home his third goal in successive games.

All hell broke loose with barely twenty three minutes remaining when Hopkins took exception to a rash tackle that the referee failed to punish and was shown a red card for his appeals, with John Lawless following him down the tunnel after being shown a second yellow card in the ensuing melee.

With only nine men on the field, it was almost an inevitability that it would give fresh impetus to Rossendale, and they pulled a goal back with ten minutes remaining through Nathan Bond, and that was merely compounded when Rossendale completed their comeback with just a minute of normal time remaining when Luke McVarish levelled the scores just three minutes after coming on as a substitute.

However, the drama was not finished when, in the sixth minute of stoppage time, debutant Brodie Kearns laid the ball off for fellow substitute Rick Gleave to smash the ball home and seal a remarkable win for nine man Genesis to secure progress to the next round of the competition and prize money of £3,000 to go alongside the £2,000 already gained for the win over Runcorn Linnets at Crilly Park in the previous round.

Genesis boss Mark Maddox was understandably delighted with his side's dramatic win.

"I thought the lads came up with a good performance in very difficult circumstances, and the late winner was testament to the hard work that the lads have put in. I thought we sat back a little too much when we went down to nine men, but huge credit must go to the lads for not giving up when Rossendale equalised and getting what I felt was a deserved winner."

Leigh now await Monday afternoon's draw when they will discover their FA Cup Second Qualifying Round opponents before making the short trip to Warrington Town for an Evo-Stik League Division One North fixture on Tuesday evening (14th September, 7.45pm kick off) ahead of a league visit to Witton Albion next Saturday (18th September, 3pm).

Leigh Genesis; Adam Judge, Adam Strode (Brodie Kearns 90), Paul Williams, Kieran Molyneux, James Bell, Rowan Garnett, Paul Hopkins, Joe Evans (James Olsen 86), John Lawless, Andy Heald, Nick Eastham (Rick Gleave 52)