Leigh Genesis 2 Clitheroe 0

A battling performance from Leigh Genesis saw them exact immediate revenge on Clitheroe for their midweek Lancashire Trophy Semi Final defeat with a well-earned victory at the Leigh Sports Village Stadium.

Genesis boss Garry Flitcroft reacted to the midweek disappointment by handing a full league debut to striker Richard Ratcliffe, while the restoration to the starting line up of centre back Mark Ross saw Chris Page appear alongside Andy Heald in an attempt to shore up the Leigh midfield.

Full of confidence after a determined midweek performance clinched their place in a showpiece Lancashire Trophy Final at the Reebok Stadium, Clitheroe had their first glimpse of goal on ten minutes when a Jason Jones strike initially seemed over-ambitious, but eventually flew narrowly over the crossbar.

At the other end, Chris Page headed a Jordan Stepien free kick wide of the far post on fifteen minutes before Tom Ince fired a free kick straight in the defensive wall from a promising position after Jack Dorney had been brought down on the edge of the area on seventeen minutes.

Leigh took the lead on nineteen minutes when confusion reigned in the Clitheroe defence as both goalkeeper Danny Hanford and centre back Ryan Fisher attempted to get to Richard Ratcliffe's header, resulting only in Hanford fumbling the ball at the feet of Jack Dorney, who swept home his sixth goal of the season in to the empty net.

Tom Ince was proving to be a thorn in the side of Clitheroe, tormenting right back Jonathan Forbes in particular, but he controversially found himself in the referee's notebook on twenty nine minutes. After skipping inside two would-be challengers, Ince hit the ground without any immediate pressure and was booked for simulation, although from an another angle it would be fair to see the value in Ince's appeal that he only went down after his studs had been caught in the turf and twisted his ankle.

Clitheroe had a golden opportunity to equalise on thirty seven minutes when Zach Clarke set his side on a counter attack that finished with Nathan Taylor having a clear view of goal, only to fire straight at Drench.

The visitors survived a scare on forty three minutes when Gavin Lee-Ellison was in the right place to clear the ball away for a corner after Page had headed a Stepien free kick dangerously across the penalty area.

However, that respite was to last only two minutes as Leigh grabbed a vital second goal on the stroke of half-time. Andy Heald stroked a wonderfully-timed through ball behind the Clitheroe defence that released Ince to hare through on goal and coolly slot the ball in to the right hand corner of Hanford's net for the winger's eighth goal of the season.

That second goal gave Genesis some valuable breathing space and allowed them to kill some time for the early portion of the second half, coming close to a third goal on sixty five minutes when Dorney smartly intercepted a defensive pass and created a chance for Ratcliffe to fire straight at Hanford.

It wasn't until the final stages that Clitheroe began to threaten to pull a goal back, Gavin Lee-Ellison missing a gilt-edged opportunity against his former club when heading a Taylor corner wide of the target when left unmarked six yards out. Even then, Leigh were a whisker away from extending their lead just a minute later when Ince laid the ball off for Heald to drill a shot narrowly over of the bar from twenty five yards out.

The game was thrown in to chaos on seventy six minutes when Steven Drench came up with a fantastic save to deny Alan Coar from point-blank range. The ball was cleared towards the left hand touchline and both Leigh centre back Karl Munroe and Clitheroe winger Zach Clarke lunged towards the ball with their feet off the ground. On another day, it might have been justified that both players would have been given their marching orders, but as it was only Munroe was shown the red card, leaving Leigh to see out the final fourteen minutes with only ten men, with the incident made all the stranger by the fact that Leigh were the ones who were awarded the resultant free kick.

With the minutes ticking down, Clitheroe's frustration was becoming ever clearer, and Jason Jones was lucky to escape further action when he raised his studs in a challenge with Drench on eighty six minutes.

Leigh's rearguard was even doing enough to spring a counter attack, with substitute Scott Sephton releasing Stepien to outpace Kevin Brown and only be denied a third Leigh goal by Hanford tipping wide for a corner.

Brown sent a long ball that finally caught out the Leigh defence on ninety two minutes but Taylor dragged his shot well wide, with Leigh left to celebrate a deserved victory after close to five minutes of time added on.

Due to the unavailability of the Leigh Sports Village Stadium, Chorley's Victory Park is the venue for Leigh's home game with Rossendale United on Wednesday evening (17th February, 7.45pm) before Garry Flitcroft's side travel over the Pennines to take on Wakefield next Saturday (20th February, 3pm).

Leigh Genesis; Steven Drench, Lee Woodyatt, Kris King, Mark Ross, Karl Munroe, Andy Heald, Jack Dorney, Chris Page, Jordan Stepien (Ilie Morariu), Richard Ratcliffe (Scott Sephton), Tom Ince (Chris Dykes)