By Matt Lawton
September 28 2010

An inspired goalkeeping performance from Colls stopper Josh Harris saw Leigh Genesis crash out of their third cup competition inside a week with a shock home defeat to neighbours Atherton Collieries.

After successive cup defeats to Skelmersdale United and Norton & Stockton Ancients in the President's Cup and FA Cup respectively in the past week, Genesis boss Mark Maddox chose to maintain a degree of rotation for the Lancashire FA Co-Operative Challenge Trophy First Round encounter at Crilly Park, with James Olsen and academy graduates Craig Carney and James Carey all handed full debuts, while defender Steve Brockley continued his return to full fitness.

Against a Collieries side that are flying high in pole position in the Vodkat League First Division and fielding a trio of ex-Leigh players in skipper Andy Walker and youngsters Joe Fielding and Rob Farrington, the two sides battled out a particularly feisty clash.

It was the visitors that had the first opening of the game on seventeen minutes when a blocked shot saw the ball fall to Paul Shanley, who dragged his strike wide of the target.

Leigh went in front on thirty five minutes when ex-Genesis man Farrington dragged down John Lawless in the penalty area and, although Lawless still managed to get a shot away that beat Josh Harris and hit the back of the net, the referee had already blown for the penalty, with Lawless duly picking himself up to despatch the spot kick in to the top corner of the goal.

For the second game in succession, Genesis goalkeeper Adam Judge conceded a penalty and, just as he did at the weekend, he quickly redeemed himself from the resultant spot kick. Judge came out of his goal to try to collect a loose ball, but in doing so swept away the legs of Shanley, only to come up with an excellent save to his right hand side to keep out Steve Wallace's penalty and maintain Leigh's lead at the break.

The early stages of the second half saw Leigh exert more pressure on the Colls goal in the hope of securing a two goal cushion, with Harris doing well first to save a low Lawless snapshot for twenty five yards out fifty two minutes before reacting quickly a minute later to parry away a ferocious Carney strike.

However, Colls posed a threat with their pace up front, particularly as they were now playing down the Crilly Park slope, and they managed to equalise on fifty five minutes when front man Kevin Kynaston cleverly played in Shanley to put him through on goal and make no mistake in slotting the ball past Judge.

Lawless was again denied by Harris on fifty eight minutes when he kept out a stinging drive after Adam Strode had done well to pick Lawless out, but disaster was to strike for Leigh on sixty three minutes when the referee awarded a remarkable third penalty of the game.

Substitute Gareth Peet had done well to run towards goal with some tricky and direct dribbling skills, but the award of a spot kick was certainly a controversial one as Peet went down in the area under a challenge from Joe Evans, with the Genesis substitute insisting that he got at least a portion of the ball whilst making the tackle. This time, Shanley stepped up to the spot and made no mistake in sending Judge the wrong way.

The introduction of Tom Obasi from the substitute's bench to replace Brodie Kearns brought a degree more urgency and creativity to Leigh's play, and they were a whisker away from equalising on seventy four minutes when Steve Brockley met an Evans corner with a thumping header that seemed destined for the back of the net, only for Harris to tip the ball over the crossbar with a terrific save.

Even when Harris was finally beaten on seventy six minutes when he misjudged the flight of a Strode cross, he had defender Craig Ward to thank for clearing the ball off the line at the back post just as it seemed set to level the scores.

Harris was beginning to deliver something of a masterclass in his own private duel with Lawless, coming up with another world-class save to keep out a Lawless free kick, even allowing for a slight deflection off his defensive wall.

The frustration of both Lawless and his side was summed up on eighty four minutes when smart play on the left hand side from Tom Obasi created another opening for Lawless, only for his strike to crash against Harris' right hand post.

A game that had threatened to spill over for much of the evening finally reached boiling point with only a couple of minutes remaining when Evans conceded a free kick for hassling Jonathan Bridge from behind whilst in possession, prompting a furious reaction from Peet that saw him appear to grab Evans by the throat, leaving referee Barry Cropp with little option other than to send Peet for an early bath, whilst also showing a yellow card to Evans for the foul that lead up to the confrontation.

Despite a number of stoppages and a lengthy period to restart the game whilst Peet left the field after his red card, Cropp played only a little over three minutes of stoppage time, leaving little room for manoeuvre in Leigh's efforts to find an equaliser and meaning Genesis find themselves eliminated at the first hurdle of the Lancashire FA Co-Operative Challenge Trophy, having reached the semi final stage last season.

Leigh are back in cup action at Crilly Park this coming Saturday (2nd October) when league rivals Garforth Town, who are reportedly targeting the iconic and enigmatic England legend Paul Gascoigne as their new manager, are the visitors for an FA Trophy Preliminary Round clash that kicks off at 3pm.

Leigh Genesis; Adam Judge, Scott Sephton, Danny Lyons, Simon Pendlebury (Carl Forrester 59), Steve Brockley, Craig Carney, Brodie Kearns (Tom Obasi 69), James Olsen (Joe Evans 46), John Lawless, James Carey, Adam Strode. Subs (not used); James Bell, Nick Eastham