Leigh Genesis 1 Hednesford Town 3

In what must have felt like ‘Groundhog Day’ for Genesis manager Lee Merricks, Leigh squandered a number of gilt-edged chances at the Leigh Sports Village Stadium as high-flying Hednesford showed their clinical edge to claim victory.

With experienced midfielder Andy Heald making his third ‘debut' for his home town club, Leigh dominated the early proceedings and came close to taking the lead on three separate occasions within the first twenty minutes.

First, Heald struck the ball across the face of goal and narrowly wide of the target, before chipping a majestic through ball for fellow midfielder Karl Brown to latch on to, only for his deflected shot to drop a coat of paint wide of the target as the crowd on their feet in celebration as they sensed the ball to be heading for the net, before Brown half-volleyed at goalkeeper Daniel Woodhall after Chris Thompson's neat headed lay-off.

However, in an incident that was almost indicative of Leigh's recent luck, the visitors took the lead with their very first strike on goal after twenty five minutes. Left back Dean Craven hared down the left flank and rounded an over-committed Nia Bayunu before being crudely brought down in the penalty area by a desperate Alex Cunliffe challenge, with Ross Dyer scoring the first of his hat-trick from the resultant spot kick.

Six minutes later and, with Leigh's young heads dropped, Dyer claimed his second, meeting Elliott Durrell's cross to send a thumping header past Danny Morton.

Hednesford struck the bar shortly before the break, but it took just a minute of the second half to go three goals clear as Dyer claimed the match ball.

That proved to be somewhat of a catalyst for Leigh to start to get back in to the game, and they did so on the hour mark when Phil Marsh showed great pace and anticipation to chase down a through ball and slide home his first league goal for the club.

Although they found themselves often frustrated by the offside flag of the referee's assistant, Marsh and strike partner Chris Thompson were once again proving to be a handful up front, with the latter unfortunate to see his shot blocked by Danny Havey after he did well to tee himself up, before left back Kris King saw two goal-bound shots blocked within seconds of each other as the visitors desperately tried to avoid conceding a second goal.

As it was, Leigh failed to trouble the scorers again but will once again rue their missed chances and question when exactly their will be rewarded for their considerable recent efforts ahead of Tuesday's visit to West Yorkshire to face Frickley Athletic, before making the short trip to Bury's Gigg Lane to face neighbours FC United of Manchester.

Leigh Genesis; Danny Morton, Nia Bayunu, Kris King, Steve Edwards, Chris Page, Karl Brown (Dale Whitham), Andy Heald (David Hill), Alex Cunliffe (Kyle Lambert), Chris Thompson, Phil Marsh, Steve Settle