1896
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Original name
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Horwich Railway Mechanics Institute Football Club |
1896-1995
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Grundy Hill
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Horwich RMI was one of two football clubs founded at the locomotive-building works of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway; it was started at the main works in Horwich. |
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RMI played in various non-professional conferences over its first 90 years of existence, primarily in the Lancashire Combination. |
1982
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Progress
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The club moved into the newly formed North West Counties League. |
1983
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Premier Northern League
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The club moved into Northern Premier League. |
1988
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Cup Win
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Manager Les Rigby led RMI to the final of the GMAC Cup in 1988 against Weymouth. Les Rigby is said to have credited their win to an advantage caused by Grundy Hill’s sloping pitch |
1994-1995
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Grundy Hill move
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The Club acknowledged that their Grundy Hill ground would not be able to help the clubs' prospects of achieving success up the football pyramid. A decision was made to relocate 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. |
1994
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Supporters
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After moving from Grundy Hill in Horwich, RMI's support has always been considered light. Horwich's traumatic move to Leigh involved a far greater leap than a mere six-mile journey south west the level of support was poor partly due to the Horwich faithful not following the team to Leigh and partly to the Leigh population not accepting a Horwich team in their midst. |
1995
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Renamed
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Clearly it would have been difficult to continue playing outside of Horwich with their club name so to reflect their new location they changed their name to Leigh RMI Football Club. RMI lost its first match at Hilton Park in March to Boston United 4-0. |
1996
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Relegation
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Unfortunately the end of the season saw them relegated |
1998-1999
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Biggest Match
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Since relocating to to Leigh, the club reached the FA Cup First Round on three occasions. In the 98-99 season, under the management of Steve Waywell, they defeated Winsford, Worksop, and Droylsden to meet Fulham, then in Division Two, at Craven Cottage. Leigh achieved a 1-1 draw against Fulham in the club's first FA Cup appearance in 16 years. Leigh goalkeeper David Felgate, who was then 38 years old, received wide-spread acclaim for his sparkling performance in the match which prompted then-Fulham boss Kevin Keegan to declare that Felgate's goalkeeping was "the best I've ever seen at any level." |
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The RMI-Fulham replay at Hilton Park, televised live on Sky Sports was witnessed by a club record crowd of 7,125 spectators and despite the final 0-2 scoreline the club enjoyed the rare spotlight. |
2000-2001
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Top flight football
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Five years after this move, Leigh RMI gained promotion to the Conference North accruing a massive 92 points and outplaying their opponents for most of the season. The top flight of non-league football was now in sight; the task was difficult but the team were on a high after the previous season’s work and despite the Nationwide Conference being a division made up of mainly full-time teams they finished in 5th position with a good record against the top sides. |
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FA Cup
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Leigh's second FA Cup First Round appearance sadly 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. |
2000-2001
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Great Result
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Probably the clubs most successful stint in the top league This season saw a 16th place finish due mainly to the strike force of former Manchester United star Michael Twiss and experienced partner Dino Maamria. |
2002-2003
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Steve Waywell departs
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Manager of 7 years Steve Waywell left to join local rivals Hyde United and his assistant Mark Patterson (former Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers midfielder) took charge and steered the club away from relegation on the final day of the season with a nail biting 1-0 win away at Kettering Town. Also in that season the club lifted the Lancashire Trophy defeating Kendal Town 2-1 in the final at Accrington Stanley’s Crown Ground. |
2003-2004
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Relegation Position
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Due to their second from bottom finish in the season the club should have been relegated to the Conference North. The club was spared relegation season due to the lack of a promotable Northern Premier League club and that Margate were demoted from the Conference for failing to meet ground standards. |
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Resignation
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In October 2003 Mark Patterson resigned as manger and the club brought in former Nottingham Forest midfielder Phil Starbuck as boss with former Manchester City legend Steve Redmond assistant/player manager |
2004-2005
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FA Cup First Round Proper
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RMI's victory at Accrington Stanley in the Fourth Qualifying Round that saw a third appearance in this great competition; unfortunately it ended in defeat for Leigh with a 2-1 defeat away to Conference South side Cambridge City. |
2004-2005
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Short- lived reprieve
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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 club had 3 managers that season (Phil Starbuck, Geoff Lutley and Steve Bleasdale) and 68 players and with no continuity the club looked to regroup in the new Conference North. |
2005
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FC United of Manchester – 1st game
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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 Glazier, 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. |
2005-2006
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Facing relegation again
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Andy Nelson and Stuart Humphreys took charge of the club for the Conference North campaign however after another second bottom finish the club again were to face relegation this time from the Conference North to the Northern Premier League. Amazingly RMI gained yet another reprieve from relegation after Canvey Island resigned from the Conference National. |
2006-2007
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RMI avoided relegation
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A little more easily this year despite finishing 17th and in the bottom half of Conference North. |
2007-2008
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Appointment of Steve Bleasdale
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On 15th October 2007 the Club made the decision to replace their manager Stuart Humphreys and his assistant Andy Roscoe on and hired Steve Bleasdale to take over. Despite their best efforts the club failed to climb of the bottom spot and became the only team to eventually move down to the Unibond Premier League |
2008
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New Chairman
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January saw the club find it’s saviour in local businessman Dominic Speakman. Facing both lack of funds and manpower to continue running the club it was fortunate to find not only a person to take up the reigns but someone who was willing to invest energy, resources and most importantly enthusiasm into this recently ‘unlucky’ club. |
2008
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New Brand launch- Name
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June saw the club change three important aspects of its identity. Its name to Leigh Genesis Football Club designed to give the Club an association with the town and to symbolize its new beginning. Its kit to White and Black, its crest to the new Genesis brand. |
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Kit
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A move away from the old red and white stripes was decided upon for several reasons, but mainly because of its overuse in the area by various local football and rugby teams; a more easily distinguished white/black shirt, black shorts and socks was chosen. The second (away) kit is all blue with white trim. Both kits will be manufactured by Nike and neither will have a sponsor, instead bearing the new Genesis name. |
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Crest
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Curiously the club had never had a dedicated crest or logo therefore the ‘borrowed’ town identity was dropped in favour of an individual designer logo which would go far to bring a unique identity to the new style of the club. |
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New Home
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In September 2008 the Club will see completion of the final phase of its rebrand in the move from Hilton Park to the brand new stadium at Leigh Sports Village. |
Facts and Figures
Record Attendances:
1954 At Grundy Hill - 8,500 V’s Wigan Athletic, Lancashire Cup
1998 At Hilton Park - 7,125 Vs Fulham, FA Cup 1st Round Replay,
Leigh Genesis Football Club formerly Leigh RMI / Horwich RMI
Playing history at a glance
1910/11 West Lancashire League Champions
1911/12 West Lancashire League Champions
1924/25 Lancashire Junior Cup Winners
1927/28 Lancashire Combination Division One Champions
1929/30 Lancashire Junior Cup Winners
1929/30 Lancashire Combination Division One Runners-Up
1948/49 Lancashire Combination Division Two Runners-Up
1950/51 Lancashire Combination Division Two Runners-Up
1953/54 Lancashire Junior Cup Runners-Up
1953/54 Lancashire Combination Cup Winners
1955/56 Lancashire Combination Division One Runners-Up
1956/57 Lancashire Combination Cup Winners
1957/58 Lancashire Combination Division One Champions
1957/58 Lancashire Junior Cup Runners-Up
1962/63 Lancashire Junior Cup Runners-Up
1965/66 Lancashire Combination Cup Winners
1966/67 Lancashire Combination Division One Runners-Up
1978/79 Cheshire County League Division One Champions
1978/79 Cheshire County League Challenge Shield Winners
1982/83 Lancashire Junior Cup Runners-Up
1983/84 Lancashire Floodlit Trophy Runners-Up
1984/85 Lancashire Football Association Cup Winners
1984/85 Lancashire Floodlit Trophy Winners
1987/88 G.M.A.C. Cup Winners
1996/97 Unibond League Division One Runners-Up
1998/99 Unibond President's Cup Runners-Up
1999/00 Unibond League Premier Division Champions
1999/00 Peter Swales Challenge Shield Winners
2002/03 Lancashire FA Marsden Trophy Winners