Farnborough Town 1-0 Leigh RMI by Martyn Hindley

LEIGH RMI walked away from the Aimita Stadium convinced that contentious refereeing decisions had cost them dear.

Their sixth league defeat on the spin away from home was compounded by a second half incident when referee Yarby waved play on after Dino Maamria had been chopped to the deck by Jim Rodwell.

The defeat meant RMI have dropped into the Conference bottom three.

Strike partner and debutant Chris Ward was also muscled to the ground moments before that, with Yarby giving a free-kick on the edge of the area despite RMI protests that the foul was inside.

Such controversy failed to mask though that this was far from classic Leigh, and they bizarrely seemed to fade out of the game when Town were reduced to ten men. Steve Watson crunched into Phil Salt and Neil Fitzhenry to earn cautions and first use of the soap half an hour early, but that brought the best out of the hosts.

Leroy Griffiths - on loan from QPR - set up the decisive strike when he went motoring down the left hand side and sent a teasing cross into the danger zone. Tony Taggart's attempt was blocked but Gary Holloway crashed in a

thumping drive off the underside of the crossbar to leave Coburn with no chance.

Coburn had a largely uneventful afternoon but Waywell's visitors were equally lacking in penetration for the most part. They came close to breaching the hosts' defence when Stuart Whittaker's effort was cleared off the line by Rodwell and Salt's injury-time piledriver ended well wide.

That apart though, their performance was chillingly average and they were lucky not to see the margin double as Dean Green surged forward at the death but failed to trouble Coburn with his snap-shot.

The reverse meant double-disappointment for Leigh on the day when their hopes of a glamorous LDV Vans Trophy tie were dashed. For the second consecutive season, they drew Conference opposition; and a tough tie at

Southport to boot when the first round is played next month.

Meanwhile, squad problems for RMI as both Damien Whitehead (Finn Harps) and Ged Courtenay (Marine) have been released on loan deals.