Ilkeston Town 3 Leigh Genesis 1
By Matt Lawton
February 28 2009
Ilkeston Town continued their surge for the play-off places after overcoming a gallant Genesis challenge to eventually gain all three points at the New Manor Ground.
In a largely drab opening, Genesis manager Lee Merricks had to cope with an injury to right back Chris Page that saw him replaced by Nia Bayunu, while Leigh striker Phil Marsh and Ilkeston centre back Simon Weaver were lucky to escape with only a warning after both raised their arms in an off-the-ball tussle.
As the game edged towards half-time, it was Leigh that began to take control as first Ilkeston goalkeeper Arron Jameson did well to divert a Steve Settle strike away from a goal-hunting Marsh after the winger had latched on to a terrific Bayunu through ball before Marsh saw a low twenty five yard strike tipped wide for a corner.
However, just as Leigh's luck has been in recent weeks, their period of pressure ended with the hosts taking the lead on forty one minutes when Ilkeston wide man Sam Duncum did superbly to cut inside from the left flank and deliver a wonderful right footed strike that curled beautifully past Genesis goalkeeper Dean Porter.
Just a minute later and Ilkeston had doubled their lead when Duncum did well to beat Bayunu and lay the ball off for Tom Cahill to lash the ball past Porter from the edge of the penalty area to give the Derbyshire lead a two goal half time lead.
The second half began in encouraging fashion for Genesis, and they halved the deficit within two minutes of the restart when Settle smartly laid the ball off for Phil Marsh to half-volley home his seventh goal of the season.
With twenty five minutes remaining, Ilkeston restored their two goal cushion and effectively sealed their victory when Ben Pringle's right wing corner was headed in at the near post by Marc Newsham.
Genesis left back Kris King saw a shot flash by the post in injury time but Leigh didn't do enough to warrant a share of the spoils and will have to improve ahead of Tuesday night's encounter with Boston United at Radcliffe Borough's Stainton Park.
Leigh Genesis, Dean Porter, Chris Page (Nia Bayunu), Kris King, Andy Heald, Alex Cunliffe, Rob Farrington, Steve Settle (Kyle Lambert), Karl Brown (David Hill), Chris Thompson, Phil Marsh, Scott Sephton
Date: | Saturday 28th February 2009 |
Venue: | New Manor Ground, Ilkeston |
Attendance: | 399 |
Half time: | Ilkeston Town 2 Leigh Genesis 0 |
Competition: | UniBond Premier League |
Scorers: | |
Ilkeston Town | Sam Duncum, Tom Cahill, Marc Newsham |
Leigh Genesis | Phil Marsh |
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Quote:wozzarmi
I have watch Leigh play on and off for the past 7 years and this management team from Ms Middleton to the youth team is in a shocking state, The first team on this showing are going down , It is going to be difficult for this team to survive in the first div they could even be playing NORTH WEST COUNTIES. if this is allowed to happen then my friends its the end........
sorry wozza , the blame must lie with the board and wigan council for letting the club get in the state where it is today , donna , mary and the team are doing as much as they can with there hands tied . this is my first (hoping for more) season , i feel for the lads who have been going `home` and away for years .
IF THE BOARD WANT THIS CLUB TOO SURVIVE THEY NEED TO DIG DEEP AND PROVE IT , ALSO IF LEIGH WANT A FOOTBALL CLUB OF THERE OWN THEN INSTEAD OF WATCHING FOOTBALL IN THE PUBS AROUND LEIGH ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON PEOPLE NEED TO START WATCHING THE TEAM.
Once we got back in it I thought we might have gone on to get a result, but it wasnt to be.
All in all a much better performance than last Tuesday, lets hope we can get a result against Boston, whose heads must be on the floor after Sat and finding themselves 3rd bottom.
By the way the fault for this is entirely with Wigan council, Donna and Mary are doing an unbeleivable job against all odds to even keep the club going
i dont take this leigh is a rugby town bollox , there must be a couple of hundred people in the surrounding areas that go and watch football elsewhere (i was one of them) and there must be hundreds who wish they could afford to go and watch football , leigh will lose football in the town and listen to the people moan when it happens .
Quote:Ok Nick you have a point but do we stay with what we have or go into the north west counties because that's what will happen. And like i said before that would be the end not of a great club but a good club,Iam sorry lads but i feel very bitter to what certain people have done to this club over the last 12 months.Nick_Astra_Army
ok then and who would you have in charge then? and who's going to pay for these more experience players?
If I remember rightly, he lost his £2m budget in about 6 months. Now if we had admission to the LSV before he left, maybe we could have a different story on our hands?
Its dark-times for the club, but I'm hopeful that a deal can be struck with these "Investors" and we can start re-building a team to take the club higher.
Sure, Boston might be struggling, but they've got a hell of a pedigree and those lads were superb tonight.
LG-SA.co.uk
Quote:MattLeyther_Matt
Well, wozza, a Football League side from two years ago couldn't beat us tonight, and that was truly with a team of kids with only Karl Brown and Chris Thompson having any real experience apart from that picked up by the young lads during the course of this season.
Sure, Boston might be struggling, but they've got a hell of a pedigree and those lads were superb tonight.
not bothered about Boston, only Leigh i think Boston will go down anyway, But a good point hope that's enough to keep us up