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English amateur football club

Leigh Genesis Football Club, formerly known as Horwich Railway Mechanics Institute F. C. (Horwich RMI) and Leigh Railway Mechanics Institute F. C. (Leigh RMI), is an English amateur association football club that currently plays in the South Lancashire Counties Football League. The semi professional senior side folded in 2011, following relegation from the Northern Premier League; however, the club continued, fielding youth teams in the North West Youth Alliance, and a women's team in the North West Women's Regional League. The senior team was reintroduced for the 2012–13 season in the South Lancashire League. The club has been based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, and played at Grundy Hill, Hilton Park, Leigh Sports Village, and finally Crilly Park. The highest level at which the club has this far competed is the Conference National, between 2000 and 2005; it reached the FA Cup first round proper on five separate occasions between 1928 and 2004.

The club was founded in 1896 and was initially known as Horwich RMI F. C., the club's name until 1995 when it relocated to Leigh and was renamed Leigh RMI. Its name was changed again in June 2008 when the club became Leigh Genesis FC.

RMI was one of two football clubs founded at the workshops of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway; it was started at the locomotive works in Horwich. The other club was started at the Newton Heath carriage and wagon works and later became known, and famous, as Manchester United. RMI played in various non professional leagues over its first 90 years of existence, primarily in the Lancashire Combination, before moving into the newly formed North West Counties League in 1982, and then onto the Northern Premier League the next year. Manager Les Rigby led RMI to the final of the GMAC Cup in 1988 against Weymouth, which was played on the sloping pitch of Grundy Hill. The home advantage was credited by many, including Rigby, for spurring RMI's victory in the match.

During the 1994–95 season, the club realised their ground Grundy Hill would not be able to help the clubs' prospects of achieving success up the football pyramid, made the decision to move from Horwich seven miles south to Hilton Park in Leigh, home of the rugby league club Leigh Centurions. As part of this deal, a new company, Grundy Hill Estates, was formed to take over the ownership of the shared ground. Once the move had been finalised and agreements had been made to share the 10,000 capacity stadium, the club officially changed their name to Leigh RMI to reflect their new surroundings. RMI lost its first match at Hilton Park in March 1995 to Boston United 4–0, and were relegated at the end of the 1995 season. Upon entering the Conference, RMI had a very successful first season, finishing a very respectable fifth place. Steve Jones spearheaded the club's attack that season, scoring 19 league goals. After a few seasons at this level, and despite the fact that things seemed to be going well for the club on the pitch, Leigh RMI faced a placement in the new Conference North division for 2004–05 due to their second from the bottom finish in the 2003–04 season. The club was spared relegation that season due to two factors: the lack of a promotable Northern Premier League club kept the team that finished above them in the table from relegation and Margate were demoted from the Conference for failing to meet ground standards. Leigh RMI's reprieve only lasted one season, however, as they were relegated after finishing bottom of the Conference table in 2004–05 with only 18 points from 42 games. The season after this relegation, Leigh RMI hosted F. C. United of Manchester, the football club started in reaction to the purchase of Manchester United by American businessman Malcolm Glazer, for FCUM's first ever match in July 2005, a friendly that ended in 0–0 draw. Leigh RMI's ownership had previously offered to merge with FCUM prior to this friendly in 2005, but the clubs decided against such a merger. "It would seem hypocritical to some degree, in light of the Glazer events, if a team came into being by taking over another club," said Chairman of RMI Supporters' Club Peter Lowe at the time. The 2005–06 season saw the club finish second from bottom in the Conference North, and the club thereby faced relegation to the Northern Premier League, but RMI gained yet another reprieve from relegation after Canvey Island resigned from the Conference National. RMI removed manager Stuart Humphreys and his assistant Andy Roscoe on 15 October 2007 and hired Steve Bleasdale to manage due to "the fact of the current low league position and falling gates something had to be done rapidly to improve our prospects," according to a club spokesman.

In May 2008 Leigh RMI lost their fight for survival and were relegated to the Northern Premier League. In June 2008 the club was renamed Leigh Genesis to signify a "new beginning" for the club ahead of its move to the Leigh Sports Village. The rebranding was also used to signify chairman Dominic Speakman's restructuring of the ailing club with the view of taking the club forward.</blockquote>

In May 2012, the club officially announced the re launch of the senior team for the 2012–13 season. was playing in the South Lancashire Counties Football League, a men's Sunday League affiliated with the Lancashire FA.

The club introduced new colours to their kit for the 2008–09 season. The home kit consisted of white shirts with black trim, black shorts and black socks, while the away kit was all blue with white trim. Both kits were manufactured by Nike and neither had a sponsor, instead bearing the new Genesis name. The kit colours were changed as part of the "Genesis" branding and to stand out from the many clubs in Lancashire with red kits. Prior to the rebranding Leigh RMI playing kits consisted of red and white striped shirts, black shorts and red socks. The emblem for the club was the Leigh coat of arms. It was said that the club had desired the colour of their home kit to be primarily black. However FA rules prevented non league clubs to do so due to comparisons with the colours worn during a match by the match officials.

As Horwich RMI, the club only made the FA Cup First Round proper twice. In the 1928–29 season, RMI lost to Scarborough at home 1–2, and 54 years later, in 1982, they lost at Blackpool 3–0. which prompted then Fulham boss Kevin Keegan to declare that Felgate's goalkeeping was "the best I've ever seen at any level." The RMI Fulham replay at Hilton Park, which was televised and shown live on Sky Sports, ended with Leigh losing 0–2. RMI's Cup defeat witnessed by a club record crowd of 7,125 spectators. Leigh's second FA Cup first round appearance in the 2000–01 season also ended in defeat. They lost 3–0 to Millwall who at that time were in Division Two. On police advice, the venue for this match was switched from Hilton Park to The New Den in Bermondsey, Millwall's home ground. A third appearance in the FA Cup first round proper also ended in defeat for Leigh with a 2–1 defeat away to Conference South side Cambridge City in the 2004–05 season. This followed RMI's 2–0 victory at Accrington Stanley in the Fourth Qualifying Round that year.

See also :Category:Leigh Genesis F. C. players