Leigh Genesis 1 Bamber Bridge 3

Alan Kershaw's bow as Leigh Genesis manager ended in defeat as visitors Bamber Bridge scored twice in the last twenty minutes to secure all three points at Crilly Park, but it wasn't an afternoon without it's positives for Kershaw.

Having taken charge at Leigh last week following the departure of former boss Mark Maddox and seen the midweek meeting with Prescot Cables postponed because of the recent bad weather, Kershaw was able to take charge of the Leigh first team for the first time on a particularly heavy Crilly Park pitch as a remnant of the aforementioned bad weather.

The Leigh side contained four debutants in right back Dale McDonald, former Southport centre back Alex Grisedale, right winger Davison Banda and midfielder Sam Fairhurst, though the latter had previously made four appearances for Leigh in the Conference North during the 2007/2008 before spending the past two years playing in Canada.

Banda showed early promise and a sign of his lightning pace when he raced on to a pinpoint Andy Heald through ball in the seventh minute to break through on goal, only to see his shot palmed away by visiting goalkeeper Ben Hinchliffe and cleared away. The danger wasn't gone for Bridge though as Fairhurst sent the resultant corner in to the area and found Grisedale, who did well to get the ball under control and evade one challenge before thundering the ball past Hinchliffe for a dream start to his debut.

However, wih Leigh still virtually celebrating taking the lead, the visitors were back on level terms when Michael White met an Ally Waddecar corner at the back post and thumped a header past Genesis goalkeeper Adam Judge.

Both goalkeepers showed their quality during the first half, first Judge when he did well to get a strong hand to a Waddecar free kick on twenty six minutes before Hinchliffe expertly tipped wide a drilled Andy Heald strike from twenty five yards out ten minutes later.

With the sides level at the break and Leigh to play up the Crilly Park slope in the second half, Genesis switched to a 4-4-2 formation with front man James Carey coming off the bench to replace Banda and join Nick Eastham in attack, with Sam Fairhurst moving to the right hand side of midfield.

The visitors began to show more composure on the ball as the second half progressed and started to dictate the pace of the game before taking the lead on seventy two minutes when Neil Black was afforded too much space inside the penalty area and unleashed a rocket of a shot that was in the top corner of the net before Judge even had chance to react.

James Kelly was brought on to replace the hardworking Jack Burke for Leigh, but Bamber Bridge sealed victory in the eighty third minutes when substitute Ritchie Allen did well to get inside the penalty area and release a shot that Judge managed to save, only for it to go only as far as Black and leave him with the simple task of bundling home his second goal of the afternoon.

Although disappointed to lose the game to two late goals, Kershaw can undoubtedly take big positives out of a particularly dogged performance from his side ahead of a free weekend before their next encounter when they travel to Mossley for a league fixture a week on Tuesday (21st December, 7.45pm kick off).

Leigh Genesis; Adam Judge, Dale McDonald, Scott Sephton, Steve Ferrigan, Alex Grisedale, Andy Heald, Davison Banda (James Carey 46), Rowan Garnett, Sam Fairhurst, Nick Eastham (Jack Smith 85), Jack Burke (James Kelly 72). Subs (not used); Chris Dykes, Steve Brockley