Preece says that Chorley are still in a ‘fantastic position’

​The Magpies remain in fifth place, and have just a one-point advantage over Curzon Ashton in eighth spot, outside the play-off positions.

The draw ended an impressive run of seven home victories for Preece’s men, and was their second successive 0-0 result after a point at King’s Lynn Town.

But Preece was not disheartened by the result. He said: “It was difficult, conditions were difficult.

“The pitch wasn’t conducive to playing any sort of decent football, the times that we did get into good areas we tried our best to pass and move but the pitch was so lively today that it just didn’t help us.

“And when you’re the team who was trying to win a game and trying to work situations, it doesn’t help.

“But we showed good character in that we kept trying, we didn’t give up on it. Sometimes in those sort of games you get frustrated and then you start doing things that you wouldn’t do and end up losing the game.

“It was just too firm and it just bounced and made a lot of fifty-fifties, not a great spectacle.”

The Magpies travel to Buxton on Friday, before hosting Radcliffe on Easter Monday and finishing with a trip to Rushall Olympic, and Preece added: “You come off the pitch and we’re still in fifth place with three games to go.

“That’s still a fantastic position to be in – at the minute we’re the fifth-best team in the league, again producing unbelievable stats season after season with what we’ve got. How can I be disappointed? I can’t be disappointed.

“Frustrated? Yes, a little bit with a few little bits where we could have been better with our final ball or we could’ve been better with our crossing because we got in behind them quite a few times but just our quality let us down.

“But you can’t criticise these lads on what they’ve done and putting the football club in the position that we are in, so we’ll move on to the next one knowing that it’s still in our hands.”