By Matt Lawton
October 30 2010

Despite enjoying more than enough of the play to look to claim at least a share of the spoils, Leigh Genesis made the long trip back from the north east empty handed as they fell to two goals in the final eight minutes.

Despite enjoying more than enough of the play to look to claim at least a share of the spoils, Leigh Genesis made the long trip back from the north east empty handed as they fell to two goals in the final eight minutes.

After thieves broke in to Leigh's Crilly Park home during the week, the fixture was switched to Durham's Esh Group Stadium at short notice, and the prospect of the long trip was unlikely to be helped by a lengthy injury list.

Midfielder Joe McKane suffered a fractured ankle in the previous weekend's 3-1 loss at local rivals Chorley, while Paul Hopkins, Joe Evans and Paul Williams, amongst others, were also sidelined, meaning Genesis boss Mark Maddox again had to name himself as one of his side's substitutes.

The visitors started brightly and had a chance within two minutes of the kick off when front man Nick Eastham did well to pinch the ball from the toes of a Durham defender in a dangerous position and lay the ball off for strike partner John Lawless, only for his shot to be blocked.

Three minutes later and Genesis were thankful for the quality of goalkeeper Adam Judge when he did well to tip an Evann Graham header over the bar from a corner kick, though this early glut of chances disguised a half that saw both sides enjoy lengthy periods of possession without creating anything clear-cut.

The ball was in the Durham net on thirty nine minutes, but the celebrations of John Lawless were quickly cut short by the referee's assistant ruling out the strike for Lawless being in an offside position when trying to latch on to a clever Eastham flick on.

Durham went close on forty four minutes when Tony Rendell could only hook his clearance as far as home debutant David Dowson, who dragged his shot narrowly wide of the target.

As thoughts drifted towards half-time, Leigh were twice a whisker away from taking a lead in to the break. First, a rasping Adam Strode strike from thirty yards out crashed against the angle of post and crossbar of goalkeeper Lewis Graham, with the ex-Hibernian youth stopper doing superbly well to claw away Eastham's curling shot from the rebound with a flying save.

The promising Graham again showed his quality just four minutes in to the second half when Leigh player/coach Andy Heald, displaying a brand new pair of flashy white boots on Durham's artificial playing surface, delivered a stinging drive from a Lawless lay off that Graham did well to tip over the bar.

Having shown arguably the greater quality previously in the game, it was almost inevitable that Leigh would surrender their pressure and instead concede a goal against the run of play, and it duly happened on fifty seven minutes when a misunderstanding between Strode and Lawless in midfield saw possession given away and the hosts swiftly sweep the ball upfield for Dowson to slot home a debut goal past Judge from the left hand side of the area.

The concession of that goal brought an immediate change in the Leigh line up, with Jack Burke brought on to replace Rowan Garnett, prompting a degree of reorganisation as Heald moved from left back to partner fellow veteran Gary Scott in midfield, while Strode moved to left back to allow Burke to take up his position on the left hand side of midfield.

Leigh had a golden opportunity that they inexplicably squandered on sixty minutes when Scott threaded through a terrific pass to put Lawless clean through on goal, where he got the apparent hard work out of the way by effortlessly taking the ball around Graham, yet somehow failing to release a shot in time to roll the ball in to the empty net and instead allow a retreating defender to clear the ball away for a corner and breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Controversy was to follow minutes later when Lawless was caught by the elbow of home defender Andrew Stephenson when challenging for a header, yet the referee saw the incident fit to only show Stephenson a yellow card, rather than the sending off that many might have expected in such a situation.

With only ten minutes remaining, the hosts doubled their lead when substitute Conor Winter came out on top of a tussle with Danny Lyons to wrestle his way past the Leigh defender and slot past Judge to seemingly seal the result. However, the game was wide open once again only two minutes later when Ross Wilkinson headed an Adam Strode cross past his own goalkeeper and see Leigh halve the deficit.

As Leigh pushed forward for an equaliser, going agonisingly close with a Rendell header, Durham sealed the win in the first minute of time added on at the end of the game when substitute Stephen Thompson did well to split the challenges of Scott and Strode out wide to burst inside and lay the ball off for German debutant Sebastian Foerg to coolly put the ball past Judge.

Genesis have no game in midweek, with their next fixture coming on Saturday (6th November) when they travel over the Pennines to take on Ossett Albion in a 3pm kick off, before making the short trip to Curzon Ashton just two days later for a league fixture (8th November, 7.45pm kick off).

Leigh Genesis; Adam Judge, Danny Lyons, Andy Heald, Tony Rendell, Adam Farley, Rowan Garnett (Jack Burke 57), Rick Gleave (Brodie Kearns 73), Gary Scott, John Lawless, Nick Eastham, Adam Strode. Subs (not used); Steve Brockley, Scott Sephton, Mark Maddox