Norton and Stockton 2 Leigh Genesis 1

TEN-man Leigh Genesis once again fell to their late-goal curse to crash out of the FA Cup at the second qualifying round stage after a tempestuous tie on Teesside.

Leigh boss Mark Maddox made several changes, including a return from a hamstring injury for front man Nick Eastham.

Currently occupying sixth position in the traditionally-strong STL Northern Football League, hosts Norton started brightly.

They went close to taking the lead twice with wide shots from frontman Jamie Clarke before Leigh created their first serious opening in the 37th minute.

Rowan Garnett threaded a ball through for Eastham whose shot was tipped wide by the goalkeeper, who did well to keep hold of an Andy Heald strike from the resultant corner.

The game descended into chaos shortly before half time when the hosts were awarded a penalty after Adam Judge was ruled to have brought down Clarke.

Judge turned villain to hero by saving the penalty that followed but that was only the start of the fireworks as a mass brawl broke out.

Once the dust had settled, Norton's Craig Gott was shown a red card for his part in the melée, with Leigh's Kieran Molyneux following him down the tunnel after being shown a second yellow card, the second time already this season that he has been dismissed.

Half-time saw some reorganisation for Leigh with James Olsen brought on to replace Tom Obasi, and Danny Lyons being withdrawn for Joe McKane, who was an impressive debutant in the President’s Cup defeat at Skelmersdale earlier in the week.

The second half saw more of an attacking threat offered by Leigh, with a well-worked move seeing Olsen have a shot saved by the goalkeeper and Eastham sending a shot narrowly wide of the right hand post.

However, disaster struck on 67 minutes when, after tipping a shot over the bar for a corner, Judge was beaten by a Clarke header after the Norton front man had been left unmarked in the penalty area.

Two minutes later, however, Leigh were back on level terms when Rick Gleave, who was nominated by TV personality Tim Lovejoy as a candidate for player of the round after his 96th minute winner at Rossendale in the first qualifying round, grabbed an equaliser for the visitors when left one-on-one with the goalkeeper and made no mistake in slotting the ball home.

Just as thoughts drifted to a midweek replay at Crilly Park, Leigh's hearts were broken by that man Clarke again, this time heading home a cross from the right-hand side with just six minutes remaining..

Genesis: Adam Judge, Danny Lyons (Joe McKane 45), Adam Strode, Kieran Molyneux, James Bell, Rowan Garnett, Rick Gleave, Joe Evans, Nick Eastham, Andy Heald (Craig Carney 81), Tom Obasi (James Olsen 45).