Leigh Genesis 1 Radcliffe Borough 2

Steve Howson's injury time header meant that Radcliffe Borough served up a shock at Victory Park, sealing all three points in a scrappy encounter.

After Leigh won 2-0 at play-off rivals Skelmersdale United on Easter Monday and Curzon Ashton only managed a draw at home to struggling Ossett Albion, Garry Flitcroft's Genesis side had a huge chance to put some daylight between them and the chasing pack in the play-off race.

However, that plan was in doubt after just six minutes as Leigh fell behind to the sort of mistake that goalkeepers have nightmares about. An innocuous Mark Ross pass back to Steven Drench caught a bobble in the pitch and left Drench swiping virtually entirely at fresh air, doing nothing more than divert the ball further towards goal for the ever-alert Eddie Stamford to capitilise and knock the ball in to the empty net.

Such a bonus gave something for Radcliffe to defend, and they did so admirably with a particularly strong midfield defence meaning that Genesis had to rely on a real piece of magic to draw level.

There didn't appear to be too many options as Andy Heald brought the ball over the halfway line on the forty two minute mark and shifted the ball to Tom Ince, but the Leigh winger moved in to a space that had appeared in his path before drilling an unstoppable strike from twenty yards in to the bottom right hand corner of Lloyd Rigby's net for his fourteenth goal of a prolific season.

Having found themselves on level pegging at the break, Genesis started the second half brightly with first Kris King firing narrowly over the crossbar from distance on forty minutes before Chris Page hooked the ball over the bar on fifty four minutes when a corner had eventually rebounded towards the centre back.

Antony Dorney, brother of midfielder Jack, was brought on to replace the largely ineffective Chris Dykes, and he had an almost immediate impact on fifty seven minutes when Ince broke forward and played the ball to his right hand side, with Richard Ratcliffe cleverly allowing the ball to run past him for Antony Dorney to have a clear view of goal, only to hit his shot straight at the goalkeeper.

The Leigh pressure was mounting, with striker Leroy Chinthengah, a double goalscorer against Skelmersdale, heading an Ince corner over the bar on seventy three minutes before a skidding Andy Heald shot was expertly tipped around the post by Rigby on eighty two minutes.

Just a minute later and Ince saw a shot deflected in to the side netting off a Radcliffe defender, with hopes of a Leigh winner increased ever further as the referee indicated a period of five minutes time added on at the end of the game.

It took a little over a minute of those five for Leigh hearts to be broken when substitute Ilie Morariu needlessly gave away a free kick on Radcliffe's left hand side which was crossed in to the box by Stamford for the unmarked Steve Howson to head past Drench.

Genesis have only two days to pick themselves back up before another vital UniBond League Division One North encounter when Bamber Bridge are the visitors to the Leigh Sports Village Stadium this Saturday (10th April) for a 3pm kick off.

Leigh Genesis; Steven Drench, Lee Woodyatt, Kris King, Mark Ross, Chris Page, Andy Heald, Chris Dykes (Antony Dorney), Jack Dorney, Richard Ratcliffe (Ilie Morariu), Leroy Chinthengah, Tom Ince