TEAM:SUTCLIFFE,HAIGH,BALL,RYDER,MORGAN.R,RILEY,THIRKELL,RYAN.S,JONES,JACKSON,CARTMAN.
SUBS:RANSOME,FORREST,RYAN.L,DOWNING,CHATTOE

After our thrashing on Tuesday night Phil Sharpe was hoping for a good reaction from his players but although there was plenty of endeavour there seemed to be no end result and this showed in the first half where really neither team threatened. However it was Rail who created the first real threat on goal after 10 minutes. A free kick from the right hand side of the pitch was floated in and the keeper was favourite to claim the ball but fumbled it. The ball was worked to Nathan Cartman but he blasted the ball over the top. Leigh responded well and Chris Amadi worked his way through our defence down the right of the area thanks to a couple of fortunate mis-tackles and his shot was deflected for a corner on the left. The ball was put in with a bit of pace and Jordan Stephen rose unchallenged at the near post and glanced his header over Liam and into the back of the net on 19 minutes to the delight of the Leigh following. Rail 0 Leigh Genesis 1
Play was pretty even for the remainder of the half where neither keeper were really tested. However towards the end of the half things were getting a little fiesty where an aerial challenge between Scott Jackson and the ‘gloved’ Andrew Teague ended up in squaring up to each other. The referee seperated the 2 and gave them a severe warning. Things cooled down and shortly afterwards the referee blew for half time. HT: Rail 0 Leigh Genesis 1
The second half basically started the same as the first but with the Rail midfield working harder. Unfortunately all their hard work was not creating enough chances for our front two and Leigh Genesis coped with them pretty easily. At the other end Sooty was having to cope with some dangerous crosses from both wings but managed to keep the ball from going in. Leigh Genesis were finding gaps in our midfield but our defence held out well with only one dangerous shot hitting the side netting. Rail were finding it hard to create any chances of their own but on one occassion where we threatened Nathan worked his way well down our left and crossed from the left of the area to Scott Ryan in the middle but his challenge on the defender resulted in him giving away a free kick. With nothing happening up front Ben Jones was replaced by Danny Forrest on 75 minutes. Shortly afterwards Leigh Genesis had a chance to sew the game up when they were awarded a penalty when the attacker was upended with a challenge from behind. The ball was played but unfortunately the player was played first. This resulted in lengthy treatment for the Leigh player and eventually had to be helped off the pitch and substituted. Up stepped Mark Smythe to take the penalty but although the ball was hit well to Liams left he was equal to the shot and palmed the shot away. Was this a chance for Rail to get back into the game? Unfortunately not - if anything this seem to raise Leighs game and not ours. Liam was the busiest of the keepers in the remaining 10 or so minutes and the score remained the same. The referee indicated 3 minutes injury time and our only half chance came when we had a free kick awarded just on the half way line. Virtually everyone was in the area but the ball was comfortably dealt with and the full time whistle blew. Rail 0 Leigh Genesis 1

MY COMMENTS: A lot of work needs doing on the team and I’m affraid several of the players on show yesterday are simply not good enough for this standard of football. The more experienced and long time servants of the club should be showing their true mettle for the new players who are coming in but you could hear a pin drop on the pitch at times and that is simply not good enough. There will be a lot of changes in the coming weeks so we need to bear with Phil and hopefully we can pull through this crisis.