GENEROUS striker Tony Black gave up his spot-kick duties last Saturday, so his goals partner Steve Jones could claim a rare hat- trick.

When the late penalty was awarded in Leigh RMI's 6-2 demolition of Nuneaton Borough at Hilton Park, Black graciously stepped aside to give Jones the honours.

It not only gave Jones his treble but also saw him overtake Black in the league goalscoring list for this season. Jones now has 11, Black 10 and to keep both of them on their toes, Dave Ridings has nine league goals.

Scoring six goals sent statisticians scrambling through the records to try to ascertain when Leigh last scored as many. They have only previously scored six or more on two occasions, both in season 1995/6, their first as Leigh RMI. The games, both at Hilton Park, were against Great Harwood Town in the first round of the UniBond League Cup, score 6-4 and Bridgnorth Town in the first qualifying round replay of the FA Trophy which Leigh won 7-0 after drawing 1-1 at Bridgnorth the previous Saturday.

The last time RMI scored six in a league match was at Grundy Hill in season 1994/5 - the days of their Horwich RMI tag. This match, played on August 29, 1994 was against Chorley with Horwich winning 6-0 with goals from Diamond (2), Robinson (2), Gayle and Kilshaw. This was the clubs record Northern Premier League home win and to show the kind of season that was, one month later RMI lost 6-1 at home to Barrow - their heaviest NPL home league defeat ever. At the end of that season RMI were relegated to the first division of the NPL/UniBond league.

Meanwhile, manager Steve Waywell has signed the highly-rated Winsford striker, Troy Hayder. The 22-year-old and has signed on a non-contract basis.

Steve Shaughnessy, the Winsford manager says: "His main strength is he's big and powerful and he's got a good chance of making it at Leigh and hopefully he'll learn a few more things."

Waywell has left the door open for Hayder to return to Winsford if he fails to make the grade in the Conference.

Waywell was also hoping to sign a left back from Hyde United once the seven-day notice of approach was up. But he has not yet been able to make contact with the player so the transfer is still up in the air.

Ricky Harris had an operation on both of his knees last week and is likely to be out of action until the middle of April. The surgery was to remove his cartilage from the left knee and the removal of debris in his right knee.

Dave German is currently struggling with a groin problem which may turn out to be a hernia and may, therefore, require an operation.