Magpies aim to ride the storm and rise up again – Chorley look to move back into play-off positions
The past month has been a perfect illustration of just how quickly things can change in the National League North, says Chorley boss Andy Preece.
Just over a month ago, the Magpies were riding high at the top of the table after winning eight and drawing five of their opening 15 games.
But as Preece’s men prepare to play their first league game of 2025 this weekend at Darlington, they are now playing catch-up having dropped to eighth in the table.
Four defeats interspersed with three victories in a seven-game period since topping the table, has resulted in their fall from their once lofty position.
An abandonment on Boxing Day and a postponement on New Year’s Day saw them drop one place outside the play-off positions.
However, they now have games in hand on all of the teams above them – and just seven points separate themselves and league leaders Curzon Ashton.
Indeed, it was Curzon who knocked he Magpies off top spot when they came to Victory Park and returned home with a handsome 3-0 win.
While the Magpies will not have enjoyed slipping outside the top seven, Preece knows his team could quite easily be back up near the top in a few weeks’ time.
"We were top and going into the Curzon game, they had two or three games in hand I think,” said Preece.
"That was a big game for us. If we had have won that, we would have gone five points clear of them.
"Obviously, they won it and so they went a point clear with the games in hand.
"But they have played those games in hand and we are still within seven points with a game in hand.
"It is so tight and even to the point when we went top of the league earlier in the season, I said that we were going to enjoy that moment because it is such a tough league and it is so tight.
"It’s a great position to be is top when the league is so tight but then you know if you have three or four bad results, you could quite easily go from top to 12th.
"But we know all about that from the final game two seasons ago, when we started in eighth, at one point we were fourth with five minutes to go and then ended up going from fourth to 12th at the end of the game.”