​Magpies are mixing it with the big boys in the National League North

After failing to win in their opening four games of the season – albeit they drew three of them – the Magpies have since picked up 12 points from a possible 15.

That sequence of results has propelled them inside the play-offs – only four points off leaders Tamworth.

Chorley’s only defeat in the last few weeks was a narrow 1-0 defeat to the table toppers.

And Preece knows that if they had been on the right side of the margins in that particular game then they would be looking down on everybody else.

"I thought we had been playing well enough in the first four games,” said Preece.

“We had that really poor first half performance against Warrington, but other than that I felt we had probably been a little bit than what we had shown in terms of points wise.

"We then had two really good performances over the August bank holiday weekend which has really set us up. If you look at the table, it’s starting to sort itself out a little bit.

“Tamworth are top, then there’s Scunthorpe, South Shields who are full-time, Brackley are up there. They have all got the finances and budgets to be at the top of the league. But we are in there alongside them. We are where we want to be and if we had beaten Tamworth, we would be top now.”