The Northern Premier is often described as the toughest league in non-League football and it’s certainly been a tough start for Leigh Genesis, the club placed at the foot of Division 1 North. The club announces on its website ‘Crilly Park - the home of proper football’. Proper football or not, four games have brought four defeats, including a 4-1 defeat in their last game at Trafford.

Of course, to outsiders there is much confusion about how you pronounce Leigh (is it like ‘lie’, ‘lee’ or ‘lay’?). People from Leigh are known as Leythers and actually pronounce the self acclaimed International Town of Culture like ‘lie’. The Leythers don’t seem to be downhearted that their football team has Genesis in its name either – maybe, they think of Peter Gabriel rather than the untalented Phil Collins. Some say that Leigh is the last bastion of proper Lancashire – even though it is not in Lancashire any more.

So, onward and upward for Leigh Genesis as fellow strugglers Garforth Town head to the home of proper football tonight.