Magpies buoyed by display against leaders as they face Buxton next
Chorley boss Andy Preece believes his team can draw great confidence from their performance against title favourites South Shields on Tuesday.
The Magpies earned a 1-1 draw against the National League North leaders at Victory Park, with striker Jack Sampson on target for the hosts.
The result followed Saturday’s dramatic late victory at play-off hopefuls Macclesfield.
The past week has certainly been a huge boost for Preece as Chorley look to make a late surge up the table in the final weeks of the season.
While the Magpies – who face Buxton at Victory Park this weekend – rode their luck certainly in the first half on Saturday, they were arguably the better team against Shields.
“I think we deserved more,” Preece told Chorley FC TV. “I think we deserved to win the game.
“We had the better chances. We put them under lots and lots of pressure.
“I doubt if they've been under as much pressure as what we put them under in too many games this season.
“It takes a mammoth effort to do what we've done today and to come off where you feel disappointed to not win the game.
“It wasn't a performance where we were just putting the ball long.
“Some of the football that we played when we won duels and when we countered was some of the best football we’ve played this season.
“Everything about our game was good today.
“You've got to give credit to South Shields because another team might have gone under bit with the pressure we put them under.”
After falling a goal behind on Tuesday, it was the Magpies’ spirit which so impressed Preece.
“Great character,” he said. “But we started the game really well after the goal. I'm saying to keep going, you've been brilliant. First 10, 15 minutes.
“Mark (Ellis) just misread the flight of the ball and the lad's gone through and it was a really good finish – that's the quality they've got in their team.
“But we came back from that and it was a really good goal again, worked it really well, we knew we had to get around Sampo (Sampson), we had to get runners beyond and once we got beyond we had to get men in the box. It was it was a great run by Max and and a great ball across and Sampo caught up and got the goal.
“I'm so proud of the performance, every single one contributed and it's been a real positive four days for us.”