High-flying Magpies continue to exceed all expectations

It’s been a rarity – certainly over the past decade or so – where the Magpies have been embroiled in a season and have not been recognised as promotion candidates.

There’s been several successes, near-misses – and outright failures – over that period but seemingly not a year goes by when the Victory Park outfit are not involved in a campaign near the top of the table.

In recent memory, the only year which springs to mind is the Covid-19-hit campaign of 2019/20 when the Magpies were relegated from the National League – the top tier of non-league football – on a points-per-game ratio after being rooted at the bottom of the table.

But that came after a remarkable season previously, when the club won promotion from the NL North against all the odds. After agonisingly missing out on a play-off spot last season after a dramatic final day, Chorley are once again aiming high in 2024.

They currently find themselves in fourth spot in the table – they have recently been as high as third – and enjoy the benefit of games in hand on the vast majority of the teams around them.

While finishing first seems a long shot considering the gap that the top two Tamworth and Scunthorpe have opened up at the top, Chorley look in great shape for a top seven finish with 21 league games left to play.

Chorley’s fine form this season – and success previously – always raises a few eyebrows considering they are a part-time outfit, generally battling against bigger clubs who have more financial clout.

Boss Andy Preece insists the club is always fiercely ambitious to do well, but even he concedes that to see his men riding high at this stage of the season is probably more than what he ever envisaged at the start of the season.

"We always aim to be in and around the play-offs and trying to win the league,” said Preece, whose side take a break from league duties this weekend when they travel to Hythe Town in the FA Trophy fourth round.

"That is always the aim – we always try to set really high targets and then you never know what you can achieve.

"Realistically, in the betting, we were 66-1 – something like 16th on the list to win the league. That is what people look at.

"So we know we have to overachieve every year if we want to be up there.

"There is always a team who gets in there who nobody expects to and a lot of the time that team is us.

"We always think why can’t that team be us.

"It’s fair to say we had a difficult start to the season and I think that came from the lack of momentum we had from just missing out on the play-offs last season and losing the players in the summer that we did.

"You can’t help but have that little thought in your head that this season could be really tough but we have managed to recruit really well.

"New players have come in and they are all playing at their standard or above their standard and we have got a team which is gelling nice together.

"Now that we are in this position, we want to stay here. We want to put ourselves under pressure and keep pushing to finish as high as we can.

"We’ve been up as high as third and with the games that have been played midweek, it’s opened up a gap between ourselves and the top two which is going to be difficult to close.

"We’ve still got to try and push though – if we fall a little short then we are still going to be in the play-offs.

"If I am being honest and I was speaking at the start of the season, to be third or fourth at this stage would have been beyond my wildest dreams.”

They may have shocked a few people so far this season, but Preece believes the challenge will get a whole lot tougher over the coming months. He knows his men will no longer be viewed as a surprise package.

"We know teams will raise their games against us,” he said. "They will look upon us as a big scalp to take or they will dig in and make it really difficult for us especially when they come to Victory Park because a point will be a good result.

"It’s going to be a different challenge for us as the season goes on and there will be a lot of six-pointers.

"The games are going to get bigger and bigger, and because we are still in the Trophy and we’ve also had a few games called off, it’s going to be relentless but we’ve got to be ready for that.”