Leigh Genesis F.C.
English amateur football club
Leigh Genesis Football Club, formerly known as Horwich RMI (Railway Mechanics Institute) and 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 Sunday 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 occasions between 1928 and 2004.
History
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.
Founding and early years
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.
“Leigh Genesis F.C.” enters the record as english amateur football club. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Leigh, Genesis and English can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Leigh Genesis F.C.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.