By Matt Lawton
August 28 2009

Despite largely dominating their FA Cup Preliminary Round tie away to league rivals Warrington Town, Leigh Genesis were unceremoniously dumped from the Cup at Cantilever Park, and it was one their own, Richard Chetcuti, that did the damage.

After both started on the substitutes bench in Tuesday's 2-0 league defeat away to Lancaster City, strikers Chris Baguley and Jordan Stepien were restored to the Leigh starting line up, while in the absence of Paul Howarth, Mark Ross was handed his Leigh debut at right back.

Barely ten minutes were on the clock and Richard Mottram was being tested in the Warrington goal when Chris Baguley threaded a wonderful ball for Stepien to line up a thumping strike that was expertly parried away by the ex-Leigh goalkeeper.

The hosts took the lead against the run of play on twenty seven minutes when a huge long ball from Mottram found it's way to left winger Chris Gahgan, who slid the ball across goal for Chetcuti, who came through the Leigh youth ranks to score five goals in thirty nine appearances between August 2007 and February 2009, to poke the ball over the line at the back post.

In what was a certain indication that it wasn't to be Leigh's night, Tom Ince failed to convert a gilt-edged opportunity to level the scores shortly after the half hour mark. Jack Dorney played a perfectly through ball for Chris Baguley to latch on to and force Mottram in to a terrific save with his legs, only for Ince to poke the rebound wide of the gaping target, albeit under tremendous pressure from right back Lee Smith.

In what certainly wasn't the only controversial incident of the evening, the referee incensed the travelling support on the stroke of half-time when Dorney skipped past two challenges before being seemingly brought down in the area on his way to goal, only for referee Mr. Johnson to see it differently and instead show a yellow card to Dorney for ‘simulation'.

Although Warrington made the odd foray in to Leigh territory during the second half, including a succession of corner kicks, the visitors may as well have set up camp in the Warrington half as they mounted a barrage of attacks on the Warrington defence.

Mottram did well to save a low Chris Baguley strike after Tom Ince had cut inside to deliver a looping cross, while Mottram was thankful to his defence for a number of brave challenges to block incoming shots.

Stepien and Chris Baguley were withdrawn from the action midway through the second half as Matt Jansen and the more robust Gomez Dahl were introduced from the bench, though the Warrington defence coped admirably with the aerial threat of powerful Frenchman Dahl.

As Leigh continued to mount pressure on the visitors, they found themselves being frustrated by the flag of the referee's assistant on more and more occasions, with Jansen in particular becoming frustrated at a number of decisions.

Warrington centre back Mike Tomlinson survived a huge handball shout, while Leigh had a degree of success at breaking the defence out wide, only to lack the quality of a final ball to Jansen or Dahl.

With the game nearing it's conclusion, the referee found his hands full as the hosts tried to play every trick in the book to wind the clock down, with delaying tactics at set pieces and more than one player having to receive treatment as a result of tackles that were little more than routine challenges. With the full-time whistle drawing ever nearer, tempers became frayed and may certainly set the tone for when the side's meet in a league fixture at Chorley's Victory Park on Tuesday evening.

Genesis had a last-gasp opportunity to level the scores when Jansen was brought down on the edge of the area, only for Jamie Baguley's left-footed free kick to scrape the crossbar.

With Warrington Wolves heading to Wembley on Saturday afternoon to face Huddersfield Giants in the Carnegie Challenge Cup, their footballing counterparts might not quite manage the same journey, but for them at least the dream lives on, as Leigh are left to rue what might have been.

Leigh Genesis; Stephen Drench, Mark Ross, Kris King, Jarl Munroe, Jonathan Smith, Steve Flitcroft, Jack Dorney (Chris Dykes), Jamie Baguley, Jordan Stepien (Matt Jansen), Chris Baguley (Gomez Dahl), Tom Ince