BARELY 24 hours after rejecting a move to FC United, Phil Marsh showed the club he spurned exactly what they had missed when he scored a hat-trick to help struggling Leigh Genesispull off a shock 4-2 victory.

Rebels boss Karl Marginson was eager to sign the former Manchester United youngster as a replacement for Kyle Wilson, the UniBond Premier League’s top scorer, who failed a late fitness test.

And the striker took less than a minute to show why FC had courted his talents after winning, then scoring, the penalty which set the tone for a disastrous afternoon at Gigg Lane for the promotion-chasing hosts. In the end, it was two goals in the last five minutes which sealed United’s fate against Genesis, bottom of the table before kick-off.

The Reds were twice forced to come from behind but, when new signing Carl Lomax, who joined from Hyde United, struck an 85th-minute equaliser it looked like they had salvaged a scarcely deserved point.

But, just a minute later, Chris Thompson put the relegation-threatened visitors back in front and Marsh completed a miserable afternoon for Marginson’s men, who dropped out of the play-off places, after another defensive blunder in injury time to seal their first league win since October.

Neil Chappell and Lomax had earlier both seen efforts come back off the woodwork, before the former cancelled out Marsh’s opener on 64 minutes But Leigh regained the lead when Marsh won and converted his second penalty, with Adam Tong again the guilty party.

FC travel to Kendal Town, one place and a point below them in the table but with games in hand, on Saturday desperate to reignite their promotion charge after successive defeats.