By Matt Lawton
November 16 2004

Old adversaries Marine make the trip to Hilton Park to face RMI for tonight's re-scheduled Marsden Trophy tie between the sides, rivals for the Unibond League championship five years ago. The two sides were rivals right until the wire for the Unibond League championship in the 1999/2000 season, when RMI eventually won promotion to the Conference under the guidance of former manager Steve Waywell with a side featuring the likes of former Wigan Athletic star Tony Black and winger Steve Jones, a player now featuring on the international stage for Northern Ireland and close to topping the Championship goalscoring charts. Those days seem so far away for an RMI side who have now hit rock bottom of the Conference and will be looking to avoid their second knock-out defeat against lower division opposition in a week following Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Conference South outfit Cambridge City in the First Round of the the FA Cup. The Lancashire FA Marsden Trophy may not quite carry the same prestige as the world's most famous cup competition, but a comfortable victory could certainly work wonders for RMI's confidence, making this evening's game all the more important in a competition that is Leigh's last piece of silverware that they collected after they won it in the 2003/2004 season.

Despite admission prices being slashed, RMI officials are expecting a crowd that may number as few as less than 150, an embarrassing figure for a side that finished fifth non-league football's top flight barely three years ago and a game that is quite likely to live up to the low-key profile of the tournament.