With striker Jordan Stepien dropped to the bench after a recent run of starting appearances, Leigh's front line had an unfamiliar look at the Arriva Stadium with Jerome Watt, ordinarily a wide midfielder, partnering Darren Mansaram up front, with the return to left back of Jerome Fitzgerald allowing Alex Mortimer to play in a more advanced role on Leigh's left hand side.

Against a Marine side that contained Karl O'Donnell, a pre-season Leigh trialist, in attack alongside Peter Cumiskey, who played in Leigh RMI's UniBond Premier League winning side of 1999/2000, Leigh showed the type of fighting qualities that were sadly lacking in Saturday's defeat, with even the early withdrawal through injury of midfield lynchpin Chris Holland failing to upset the determination of the visitors.

Although Leigh largely dominated possession in the early stages of the game, the better chances fell to the hosts, with O'Donnell forcing a smart save from Steve Dickinson with a curling shot after eleven minutes, before firing straight at the Leigh goalkeeper after Jeome Watt had been denied at the other end by a desperate last-ditch Lee Williams tackle.

Watt went close on the half hour mark, eventually managed to get a view of goal on the edge of the box but dragged his side high and wide of the target under heavy pressure as the Leigh midfield started to control matters.

The period shortly before half-time is often said to be the perfect time to score a goal, and Leigh have found themselves on the wrong end of such strikes on an all too familiar basis so far this season, but it was go to their way this evening as they took the lead on forty two minutes, Alex Mortimer's inswinging corner from the right wing teasing Marine goalkeeper Sean Lake out of his goal and allowing Andrew Teague to nip in and head home his first ever Genesis goal.

The highly-rated former Macclesfield Town youngster received a hefty blow to the head in the process of scoring the goal, but the centre back grinned through the obvious pain as he got his side off the mark.

As has disappointingly been the case on more than one occasion this season, Leigh almost conceded an equaliser within seconds of going in front, with the visiting support grateful for the concentration of Dickinson who did well to desperately save a Darren Brookfield shot, with the similarly alert Jonathan Goulding clearing the danger to ensure Leigh's lead remained intact at the break.

The second period saw the hosts struggle to control the tempo of the game, with Leigh providing a consistent threat on the counter attack with the pace of Mortimer, Maylett and Watt, while Tom Field provided able assistance from midfield, Field seeing a shot blocked by the legs of Lake and he'd checked inside a defender eight yards from goal.

A gallant chase towards a through ball saw Jerome Watt tweak a hamstring and as such leave the field to be replaced by Richard Chetcuti, making his first appearance since picking up an injury in the 2-1 win over Prescot Cables earlier this month, with Chetcuti working hard alongside Mansaram, and later fellow substitute Matt Berkeley, to retain possession upfield for as long as possible.

The hosts started to provide more of a threat on Leigh's goal as the second half wore on, striking a stanchion with one particular effort while Dickinson had to be alert to repel a number of Marine set pieces, while substitute Kevin Lynch headed inches wide of the target when in a great position in front of goal.

Field again came close to scoring a second Leigh goal, an ambitious forty five yard strike landing just a whisker away from the goal after Lake sliced a clearance, with a strong finish from the visitors ensuring that, despite three minutes of injury time, the three points would be heading back to Leigh to lift Steve Bleasdale's side within a point of the play-off places.

Leigh Genesis; Steve Dickinson, Jonathan Goulding, Jerome Fitzgerald, Tom Field, Andrew Teague, Rob Marsh-Evans, Brad Maylett, Chris Holland (Josh Wilson), Jerome Watt (Richard Chetcuti), Darren Mansaram (Matt Berkeley), Alex Mortimer

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