Chorley boss happy to get through game unscathed and with a point

“That wasn’t a game of football, it was just a case of getting through to the finish,” said Vermiglio.

“Apart from the wind and the rain, the pitch was terrible and in the last 20 minutes I thought it was actually unsafe.

“I’m just full of admiration for all the players on both sides.

“In the circumstances we’ll take the point. I’m not going to criticise anyone and there’s no debrief after that.

“The players will shower and we’ll go home.”

Proceedings were something of a lottery with the swirling wind carrying the ball into unpredictable areas and the ball increasingly sticking in the mud.

Farsley went ahead on eight minutes when Jimmy Spencer beat the offside trap and slipped the ball past Matt Urwin.

It could have been two for Celtic 10 minutes later when Lewis Turner’s shot beat Urwin but cannoned off the crossbar.

Chorley hit back after 21 minutes when Brad Holmes determinedly rode two challenges before playing in Billy Whitehouse who fired home from the edge of the box.

Then on the half-hour the Magpies went in front, Connor Hall fastening onto a long ball and clipping it past the advancing Kyle Trennery for his 10th goal of the season.

The lead lasted barely three minutes. Lewis Baines was penalised, perhaps harshly in the conditions, and Will Hayhurst drove the penalty past Urwin.

But Chorley regained the lead after 38 minutes when from a short corner routine Adam Blakeman looped a shot across and over the keeper to give the Magpies the advantage going into the break.

Both teams became increasingly bogged down in the second half but Farsley equalised in the 64th minute.

Urwin punched clear from Hayhurst’s corner but when the ball was returned into the goalmouth Adam Clayton was on the spot to head home.

For bottom-of-the-table Farsley’s new manager Russ Wilcox, a point from his first game in charge was a very welcome first step towards recovery after the side’s run of five defeats.

The Magpies extended their unbeaten sequence to 11 games but in dropping two points here they slipped a place to fifth owing to Fylde’s impressive victory at table-topping Gateshead.

CHORLEY: Urwin, Leather, Baines, Whitehouse, Calveley, Tomlinson, Ustabasi, Blakeman, Senior, Hall, Holmes (Smith 87). Subs (not used): Shenton, Okome, Scarborough, Birchall.