​Magpies must take bull by the horns in  pursuit of promotion

​The Magpies slipped out of the National League North play-off places after The Wire completed the double over them.

However, with Gloucester City scheduled to arrive at Victory Park this weekend, Preece has urged his men to bounce back quickly.

The weekend defeat saw Chorley slip to eighth in the table, but a win this evening could see them potentially move back up to fifth if other results go their way.

The Magpies must start to make their games in hand count though.

They have picked up just one league win in 2024 and are in danger of letting all their hard work before Christmas go to waste.

"We need to look at ourselves and make sure we get ourselves right for the next game and the next 16 games after that,” said Preece.

"We are in a fantastic position and no way are we going to let it slip.

"We’ve got to bounce back, I am not going to shy away from a bad performance. The performance was unacceptable. The games are coming thick and fast and you can soon put things behind you.

"We are not in a position where we can learn from that one, we are at the business end of the season.

"We’ve got 16,17 games left – it’s not about learning now, it’s about doing.

"The lads have put themselves in a fantastic position but we can’t allow ourselves to have performances like Saturday.

"We could have got something out of the game, it’s not like we got battered or anything.

"If we had have shown any kind of quality when we won the ball back, we could and probably would have won the game. There was just no focus in our game but like I say it’s about doing now.”

Elsewhere,, relegation-threatened Southport entertain Spennymoor at Haig Avenue. The Sandgrounders are fourth bottom but do have games in hand.