Forest Green Rovers 2 Leigh RMI 2

Last updated : 29 November 2003 By Footymad Previewer

In a drab encounter Leigh RMI snatched a last minute equaliser to share the points against Forest Green Rovers.

Rovers should have gone in front within four minutes when Neil Grayson beat the offside trap to latch on to Damon Searle's long ball forward to race clean through, but he fired past the left-hand post from close range.

Leigh's first decent chance came after 25 minutes when Carl Barrowclough's cross found Wayne Maden, whose header forced Rovers keeper Steve Perrin to tip the ball over the bar.

Sixteen minutes into the second half, Leigh went in front when David McNiven made amends for a miss earlier in the game, this time firing the ball into the roof of the net after getting past the Forest Green defence.

Four minutes later it could have been all square when Grayson latched on to Martin Foster's cross only to see his effort rebound off the crossbar and Scott Rogers' follow-up was superbly saved by Leigh keeper Gary Kelly.

They did finally equalise, however, after 69 minutes. Grayson's deep cross falling for Alex Meechan, who fired a low shot into the right-hand corner of the net.

Meechan almost turned provider nine minutes from time racing on to Grayson's ball down the right wing and his cross found Foster in the penalty area, but his first-time shot was cleared off the line.

Just six minutes from the end, Rovers went in front. A Lee Phillips cross was flicked on by Grayson to Alex Sykes who stabbed the ball beyond Kelly into the net.

However, deep into injury time, Leigh were awarded a penalty after Sykes was adjudged to have handled Gerry Harrison's shot and was then shown the red card.

Warren Peyton stepped up to take it and although Rovers keeper Perrin did well to block the first attempt, Peyton was first to the rebound to put the ball into the net.