Leigh RMI 0, Nuneaton 1 by Martyn Hindley: RMI manager Steve Waywell added further fuel to an already controversial afternoon at Hilton Park as he responded to Leigh's first league defeat for two months by tearing into the state of the pitch.

Nuneaton took home all three points to the Midlands after a debatable early penalty but Waywell was more concerned with a pitch that he feels is "prepared more with rugby in mind than football."

"It's like playing on a ploughed field", said an enraged Waywell after the game.

"It's an absolute disgrace out there and for players like ours, who play passing, attractive football. It's likeputting a Mini engine into a Rolls Royce. It just doesn't work!

"The pitch was definitely a leveller today because they were definitely the poorest side that we have played this season. At the end of the day, if they want a football side down here then we need to play on a flat surface. There is nothing in this pitch. It is dead, it bobbles all over the place and it is impossible to perform.

"What concerns me is that at other football grounds where they play rugby league like Bradford, Rochdale and Wakefield, they have a flat pitch that stands up well. Here we don't and it's disgraceful."

Outburst

The manager's outburst came after a rebuke to referee Harris who was universally disliked after numerous controversial decisions. Waywell condemned the man in the middle for an outlandish second minute penalty was awarded to Borough that eventually determined the outcome of the game.

Neil Durkin looked to have won the ball from Maurice Harkin on the edge of the area but after the Nuneaton midfielder went to ground, Warren Peyton sent Mark Westhead the wrong way to give the visitors the early initiative.

The Leigh players were understandably angered by the award and had only just finished their remonstrations with the official when Nuneaton's Jason Harris thought that he had a second when he headed home only for the referee to make a second bizarre award and cancel out what seemed to be a legitimate effort.

Borough could have extended their lead when Peyton's long range attempt stung the fingertips of Westhead and Harris glanced his header too close to the former Wycombe goalkeeper who could get down to make a fine save at the foot of his left hand post. Add to that Harkin's shot which was no real test for Westhead and it seems like a pretty open and exciting contest. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Both sides ground out a tedious midfield stalemate that occasionally spewed into the penalty areas with disastrous results.

Fancy touches

Steve Thompson was making his first league start in an RMI shirt and produced some fancy touches, one of which was to release Ian Monk on goal from a quickly taken free kick. However, the winger compounded his ineffectiveness with a tame effort that only just had the legs to reach Chris MacKenzie in the visitors' goal.

Monk wasted another glorious opportunity in the dying minutes of the game, Twiss headed wide from six yards out after Hallows had done all the hard work to get the cross in and then the striker missed a simple chance of his own.

Dino Maamria entered the fray with 15 minutes remaining and was at the centre of some disgraceful scenes at the end that could see him face a lengthy ban at a critical time of the season. Having engaged in an innocuous tangle with defender Terry Angus, Maamria lashed out with a right hook. As if that wasn't bad enough, an incensed Maamria had to be led away from the linesman by team-mates as his anger reached unparalleled heights. Further altercations surrounded both players in the bar after the game.

RMI: Westhead, Fisher (Spooner 73), German, Durkin, Swan, Udall (Heald 61), Monk, Thompson, Hallows (Maamria 75), Kielty, Twiss. Subs unused: Farrell, Dootson. Attendance: 410.