By Matt Lawton
August 25 2009

Hosts Lancaster City maintained their perfect start to the season with two first half strikes that condemned Genesis to a disappointing second away defeat in eight days.

Perhaps mindful of Friday night's vital trip to Warrington Town in the FA Cup Preliminary Round, Genesis boss Garry Flitcroft handed full debuts to strikers Gomez Dahl and Jamie Baguley, with three goal top scorer Chris Baguley and two-goal Jordan Stepien starting on the substitutes bench.

Dahl almost put Leigh in front within eight minutes when a Jack Dorney strike was deflected in to his path, only for the French frontman to see his shot blocked on the line.

Barely two minutes later and Leigh were a goal behind when an initial header from a left wing corner was blocked, with former Leigh man Chris Ward on hand to sweep the ball past Genesis goalkeeper Stephen Drench.

Drench had to be at his best to deny Paul Jarvis when the winger broke clear of Drench's defence after latching on to a huge long ball from Lancaster goalkeeper Martin Fearon.

Leigh thought they'd been handed a golden opportunity to get back in to the game on twenty minutes when Dahl did superbly to hold off the challenge of Michael Stringfellow as he burst forward before eventually being bundled over in the penalty area by the Lancaster centre back, only for the referee to controversially decide that the original offence took place outside of the box.

The visitors were beginning to threaten a little more often, and Dorney was unlucky to see his curling shot deflected over the bar by Stringfellow when it appeared to be heading straight for Fearon's top right-hand corner.

When considering the nature of Dahl's penalty appeal being previously turned down, it could be forgiven if Leigh felt aggrieved at the nature in which they fell further behind on twenty three minutes when ex-Leigh defender Andrew Teague collided with Genesis right back Paul Howarth on the very edge of the area, with the referee, with the help of his assistant, deciding that on this particular occasion the offence did happen inside the area, with Mike Rushton clinically lifting the ball over Drench from the resultant spot kick.

Stepien, Chris Baguley and Dale Whitham were all introduced from the bench as Leigh chased the game, and although Stepien went close with a drive over the bar, the best chance of the half fell to Lancaster substitute Adam Farrell, who's snapshot was expertly tipped over by Drench.

Leigh's miserable evening was completed in added on time when centre back Karl Munroe was given his marching orders for a mistimed lunge in to what had appeared to have been a 50-50 ball.

This was hardly the preparation that Leigh were hoping for ahead of Friday's huge FA Cup encounter with Warrington (7:45pm kick off, Friday 28th August), but at least they're now fully aware of the standard of opposition they are going to come up against if they are to achieve an instant return to the UniBond Premier League.

Leigh Genesis; Stephen Drench, Paul Howarth (Dale Whitham), Kris King, Jonathan Smith, Karl Munroe, Andy Heald (Chris Baguley), Jack Dorney, Steve Flitcroft, Gomez Dahl (Jordan Stepien), Jamie Baguley, Tom Ince