Leigh Genesis extended their unbeaten league run to six games with an impressively comfortable defeat of league leaders Colwyn Bay at the Leigh Sports Village.
The Welsh outfit travelled to the LSV with a record of five wins in their last seven league games and keen to maintain their position at the top of the league on the back of a fortnight's break from a shock 5-2 defeat at AFC Fylde in their last outing.
However, they were barely given a chance to get in to their stride a chilly Sports Village, with Leigh taking the lead after just fifteen minutes when Jonathan Smith headed a Kris King cross back in front of goal for Chris Thompson to flick home his tenth goal of the season at the back post.
That lead was almost doubled minutes later when Jamie Baguley won the ball in midfield and set Leigh on the attack, only for Thompson to fire wide after latching on to a delightful Matt Jansen backheel.
The home faithful didn't have to wait long for a second goal for their side, and again it arrived in stylish fashion on twenty minutes as in-form seventeen year old midfielder Dale Whitham volleyed home a terrific Jansen cross for his third goal in his past four league outings.
Garry Flitcroft had his Leigh side out early for the second half, and it showed in a bright start that saw them almost claim a third goal within minutes of the game restarting when Tom Ince ended a driving run with a rasping shot that was tipped wide by goalkeeper Chris Sanna.
Colwyn Bay posed a rare threat when Adriano Rigoglioso hooked wide of the target when afforded a clear view on goal, but their task was made almost impossible on sixty three minutes when Sanna was given his marching orders.
Chris Thompson flew around the sliding challenge of ex-Tranmere defender Dave Challinor and was haring through on goal only to be brought down by Sanna when attempting to go around him and leave the referee with little option but to send the goalkeeper from the field and award a penalty to the hosts. Jordan Stepien sent the resultant spot kick past stand-in goalkeeper Challinor in to the bottom corner with the minimum of fuss and the task was completed.
With ten men surprisingly followed Colwyn Bay's best spell of the match and, with several substitutions made in the Leigh side, the visitors saw a large degree of the ball, if anything to prevent any goal attempts on their centre back-cum-goalkeeper. Ian Sheridan pulled one back for the visitors with just seven minutes remaining when he slotted a first time shot past Stephen Drench from Eddie Jebb's cross, but it was little more than a consolation.
Genesis make the short trip to Preston on Tuesday evening (1st December, 7:45pm kick off) to take on Bamber Bridge, before another imposing home fixture against high-flying FC Halifax Town at the Leigh Sports Village Stadium next Saturday (5th December, 3pm). Tickets are on sale now from the LSV Ticket Office, with supporters advised to purchase them in advance or arrive early on the day because of an expected bumper attendance, with season tickets for use as normal.
Leigh Genesis; Stephen Drench, Chris Page (Mark Ross), Kris King, Karl Munroe, Jonathan Smith, Jamie Baguley, Jordan Stepien, Dale Whitham, Matt Jansen (Steve Flitcroft), Chris Thompson, Tom Ince (Andy Heald)
playing some good football but getting a bit worried when we are winning we are switching off and passing balls around the defence, we need keep playing for 90 mins. well done today against a team who are up there and on that performnce i dont know how
measured football ! not many passes go astray!
i honestly didnt know they were top , on todays performance not many teams will look forward to coming to the astra arena @ the lsv
they are a joy to watch roll on next week and halifax , biggest crowd of the season guaranteed
to be fair at 3-0 i wasnt too fussed about us passing the ball around the back as long as we kept hold of it and not put our selves under any pressure which i thought we did ok. all in all great performance.
next week will be a massive test halifax are going to come out all guns blazing think the first 15mins are going to be crucial like today. we just need to take our chances when they come.
Be interesting to see how we line up next week - we need to make sure we're not over-run in midfield like we were at that place, and especially get Munroe watching James Dean like a hawk.
Can't agree with that at all, Smith's experience is worth 10 yards of pace as far as I'm concerned. Especially as he's developed a good partnership with Munroe in recent weeks.
sooner play with jack and tom (oooooooooooer ) we`re more of an attacking force with 2 wingers , stepian did ok today but jack is 1st choice right wing .
I'm not convinced about Rossy at centre back, unless you put Page there and Ross at right back? Still, I would never go along with changing a winning team unless it's completely necessary.
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