By Matt Lawton
August 15 2009

Despite atrocious weather conditions in the East Lancashire hills, Garry Flitcroft’s Leigh Genesis side got their UniBond League Division One North campaign off to a flying start with two quickfire second half goals sending them on their way to an opening day victory at Rossendale.

Although Flitcroft made a number of signings over the summer, only former Blackburn Rovers and England Under 21 striker Matt Jansen was a Leigh debutant in the starting line up, as Flitcroft kept faith with the majority of the side that had a successful end to last season, despite relegation from the UniBond Premier League.

It was one of those re-signed players that was a central figure when the visitors should have taken the lead on eleven minutes as winger Jack Dorney made a clever run through the middle to break clear, but in trying to outfox goalkeeper Tom Brocklehurst, was almost too clever for his own good and tried to pass the ball to the waiting Jordan Stepien to prod home, only for Stepien to be in an offside position. In hindsight, a lot could be said that Dorney should have taken his chance at the first opportunity and slotted past Brocklehurst, rather than try to make the chance for Stepien.

Against a dogged Rossendale side, Leigh had to wait until the thirty eighth minute to take the lead when, after a couple of occasions where he could count himself lucky not to be penalised when tussling with Jansen at corner kicks, the luck ran out for Rossendale centre back Flint Robert when a penalty was given against him after bundling over Jordan Stepien on the edge of the six yard box.

Steven Flitcroft converted the resultant spot kick, but it wasn't without a scare of it's own as he hit it a little too near to Brocklehurst for comfort, with the former Bolton Wanderers academy goalkeeper unlucky to see the ball rebound beneath him and in to the net, leaving Leigh a goal to the good at half-time.

Only a matter of minutes in to the second half, Leigh thought that they had their second penalty of the afternoon when the referee pointed to the spot after Kris King had been brought down in the area, only for the man in the middle to change his mind and instead give a free kick to the hosts after consulting his assistant, who had ruled that King had originally received the ball in an offside position.

Playing in the 120th game of his Leigh career, midfielder Andy Heald made a promising burst in to the area ahead of two dozing defenders, and sent a low cross that flew tantalisingly across goal, only a whisker away from the boot of the sliding Jordan Stepien, with the keeper already beaten.

With Leigh still a goal in front on the hour mark, Jansen's hardworking debut came to an end when he was replaced by another debutant, Chris Baguley, before Rossendale had their first genuine attempt on goal when Stephen Drench had to be alert to smartly save a low shot from former Leigh striker Neil Smith.

On seventy two minutes, Leigh finally managed to grab the second goal that their dominance deserved when Jordan Stepien beat the offside trap and delivered a right foot shot that was superbly palmed away by Brocklehurst, only for it to go in the direction of Chris Baguley, following up Stepien's shot, to slide home the rebound for a debut goal.

Just three minutes later and it became a three goal lead in almost identical fashion when Brocklehurst made another excellent save, this time from a rasping Jack Dorney shot, only for Stepien to be following up on this occasion to lash the ball in to the net for his tenth goal in Genesis colours.

Leigh blotted their copybook on eighty six minutes when Stephen Drench saw a kick charged down by substitute Marcus Calvert to tap the ball in to the empty net, but that was only a momentary blip as Leigh came within a fraction of scoring again in stoppage time as Brocklehurst capped an impressive performance with a terrific double save, first saving a point-blank Dale Whitham header from a pinpoint Paul Howarth cross, and then bravely diving at the feet of Stepien to block the rebound.

Genesis make the short trip to Ashton-under-Lyne on Monday (17th August) night to face Curzon Ashton in a 7:45pm kick off before Garforth Town are the first visitors of the season to the Leigh Sports Village Stadium next Saturday (22nd August) at 3pm.

Leigh Genesis; Stephen Drench, Paul Howarth, Kris King, Chris Page, Jonathan Smith, Andy Heald, Jack Dorney (Dale Whitham), Steve Flitcroft (Chris Dykes), Matt Jansen (Chris Baguley), Jordan Stepien, Tom Ince