Chorley recovered from the shock of an early two-goals’ deficit to unseat table-toppers Chester in a thrilling contest in front of a raucous crowd of 2,804 at Victory Park, writes Pete Tscherewik.
Goals from Mike Calveley, George Horbury and Mark Ellis put Calum McIntyre’s side to the sword to claim a memorable victory and lift the Magpies into fourth place.
Chorley started the better of the two sides but, despite their early attacking momentum, Andy Preece’s side soon found themselves a goal behind; the classy Tom Peers finishing off a brilliant Blues’ move. A defence-splitting pass from Taelor O’Kane found Dan Turner who squared the ball back perfectly for Peers to steer it past Matt Urwin in goal.
Ten minutes later and the visitors doubled their advantage, Peers with his second, in the right place at the right time to get on the end of a Tom Leak shot that looked destined to go wide, but for a deflection that sent it into Peers’s path.
With what felt like a mountain to climb against the league leaders, Chorley responded well in search of a route back into the game, and got it, Calveley ending a goalmouth scramble and beating off Chester goalkeeper Jimmy Storer to reduce the deficit to one.
Building on that momentum, the Magpies restored parity before the break; George Horbury capping off a gorgeous attacking move, placing the ball into the far-corner past Storer from distance with his weaker left-foot.
Following the restart, Chorley picked up where they left off, the stronger of the two sides, and Chester struggled to cope with their attacking momentum early on.
With 81 minutes on the clock, following a series of corners, Ellis, who had earlier headed inches over the bar, was again the man on the spot. Meeting another perfectly-flighted Adam Blakeman corner he sent the Chorley supporters massed behind the goal into absolute pandemonium as the score became 3-2. The Magpies’ resolute, well-organised defence kept a tight grip on the rest of the proceedings and, despite Chester’s best efforts to save the game, Urwin in the home goal was not seriously tested.
A delighted Preece praised both teams .
‘Wow! What a game,” he said. “Two sides really going for it. It was a great advert for the league.
“Two-nil down against a a very good Chester team, many sides would have folded but we kept going, showed what Chorley are all about and got our reward. I didn’t even make a single sub which says it all about the character of the performance.”
Chorley: Urwin, Henley, Smith, Ellis, Blakeman, Montgomery, Calveley, Horbury, Clarke, Carr, Hall. Unused: Touray, Eze, Moore, Whitehouse, McGhee.
