LEIGH Athletic maintained their steady progess with a 5-5 draw at mid-table Hollinwood.

But they were left rueing a missed opportunity after leading 3-1 when their opponents had a man sent off.

Leigh, third bottom of Division One, have steadied the ship in recent weeks with four draws followed by a single-goal defeat to the top of the league last week.

They looked on course to getting that elusive victory when they took an early 2-0 lead and then when the home side went down to 10 men on the hour mark.

But the sending off seemed to give Hollinwood a kick start and they rattled in four goals without reply to take a 5-3 lead.

But Athletic are a resilient outfit at present and hit back with goals from Tom Scott and Jack Kenny to earn a point.

Manager Colin Pickering said: “Our results are improving, which is encouraging.

“But we should have won it from being 3-1 up and them having a man sent off.

“Having said that we showed character to come back from 5-3 down to get a draw. Now we need to go one better and get a win on the board.”

Midfielders Scott and Karl Shepherd put Athletic 2-0 ahead early on, and after Hollinwood pulled a goal back before half-time, Kenny restored the two-goal lead.