Leigh RMI 1 Stevenage Borough 2
By Matt Lawton October 9 2004
A late winner from former RMI hero Dino Maamria dashed Leigh's hopes of an unlikely point as Stevenage condemned RMI to their seventh successive Conference defeat.
A late winner from former RMI hero Dino Maamria dashed Leigh's hopes of an unlikely point as Stevenage condemned RMI to their seventh successive Conference defeat.
Thanks to the wisdom of the fixture schedulers, organising the game in a direct clash with England's vital World Cup qualifying game against Wales down the road at Old Trafford, possibly RMI's lowest ever Conference crowd attended the game, with only 235 fans being sparsely dispersed amongst the Hilton Park terraces.
A dire first half was only livened up on the half hour mark when Anthony Elding gave the visitors the lead, putting the ball past debutant RMI 'keeper Paul Crichton with an excellent strike from more than twenty yards out from goal.
The visitors almost doubled their lead with five minutes of the first half remaining when a defensive howler from Chris Robertson gave Brian Quailey a glaring chance, but he fired wide with the goal at his mercy.
RMI came out much more determined in the second half, livening up the small crowd in the process, and they deservedly equalised just before the hour mark when Gareth Stoker scored for the second game in a row, jinking inside a defender before slotting the ball in to the corner from the edge of the area.
However, Leigh immediately almost threw it away when Stevenage broke away on the counter attack, but Ritchie Hanlon messed up his shot.
The visitors won it with fourteen minutes left on the clock when Tunisian striker Dino Maamria put the ball in the net from six yards out, admirably refusing to celebrate when realising he had condemned his former club to yet another defeat.
Leigh could've equalised on two occasions in the last few minutes, Gareth Stoker being denied a second by 'Boro goalkeeper Andy Woodman from six yards out following a goalmouth scramble, before substitute Craig Mitchell missed an absolutely blinding chance, completely missing the ball when all he needed to do to score was to make a clean contact with the ball.
Despite a very poor first half performance, once RMI started to get the ball on the deck and create a few chances then they played well in patches in the second half, and that will be of much encouragement to RMI's under-pressure management team of Phil Starbuck and Gary Kelly, who will be hoping that they can build on it at Dagenham next weekend.
A dire first half was only livened up on the half hour mark when Anthony Elding gave the visitors the lead, putting the ball past debutant RMI 'keeper Paul Crichton with an excellent strike from more than twenty yards out from goal.
The visitors almost doubled their lead with five minutes of the first half remaining when a defensive howler from Chris Robertson gave Brian Quailey a glaring chance, but he fired wide with the goal at his mercy.
RMI came out much more determined in the second half, livening up the small crowd in the process, and they deservedly equalised just before the hour mark when Gareth Stoker scored for the second game in a row, jinking inside a defender before slotting the ball in to the corner from the edge of the area.
However, Leigh immediately almost threw it away when Stevenage broke away on the counter attack, but Ritchie Hanlon messed up his shot.
The visitors won it with fourteen minutes left on the clock when Tunisian striker Dino Maamria put the ball in the net from six yards out, admirably refusing to celebrate when realising he had condemned his former club to yet another defeat.
Leigh could've equalised on two occasions in the last few minutes, Gareth Stoker being denied a second by 'Boro goalkeeper Andy Woodman from six yards out following a goalmouth scramble, before substitute Craig Mitchell missed an absolutely blinding chance, completely missing the ball when all he needed to do to score was to make a clean contact with the ball.
Despite a very poor first half performance, once RMI started to get the ball on the deck and create a few chances then they played well in patches in the second half, and that will be of much encouragement to RMI's under-pressure management team of Phil Starbuck and Gary Kelly, who will be hoping that they can build on it at Dagenham next weekend.
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