By Matt Lawton
February 4 2004

With just 3 days to go till RMI's do-or-die relegation six-pointer against fellow basement battlers Tamworth, we take a look at the meeting between the sides earlier in the season. The Lambs visited Hilton Park in September of last year and left with a point from a 1-1 draw, though it would be fair to say they could've taken all three, with RMI ending a losing run of three matches, albeit somewhat unimpressively.

The match was preceeded with a petition campaigning for the building of the proposed Leigh Sports Village, with more than 200 supporters from both Leigh and Tamworth signing it.

RMI featured three debutants in the form of goalkeeper Gary Kelly, former Bolton Wanderers striker Chris Downey, who has since left the club, and the then player-assistant coach Phil Starbuck, who has since gone on to become RMI's permanent manager.

RMI took the lead on the stroke of half time through a Steve Redmond header, but faced a barrage of attacks from the visitors in the second half, though they only had a Scott Rickards penalty to show for their considerable efforts.

Former Oldham Athletic and Republic of Ireland 'keeper Kelly mounted an eventually succesful one man crusade to win a point, but RMI were hit with the suspension of Paul Shepherd who was shown the red card after handling in the area.

When RMI make the trip to Tamworth for the return game on Saturday they will certainly have to improve from Tuesday night's 4-1 defeat at Chorley in the Lancashire FA Marsden Trophy, and the three points are a must if RMI are to be succesful in avoiding slipping through the Nationwide Conference relegation trap door.