Response to punishing schedule delights Chorley boss Preece

​The Magpies sit second in the table, after four wins and a draw from their opening five games, ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Leamington.

Bank holiday Monday’s 4-0 win against King’s Lynn followed hot on the heels of Saturday’s 4-1 victory at Hereford, and Preece says his group of players has already answered every question that could be asked of them.

He told Chorley FC TV: “We've done really well – 13 points from five games doesn't tell the story. Everyone thinks, 'Oh you're absolutely flying, must have been comfortable for you'. We started off the first game with 10 men for 50 minutes and found a way to win that from being 2-1 down.

“We've had injuries at centre-half...we have been stretched and used pretty much everyone in the squad already. So it's been a massive squad effort.”

And it won’t get any easier this weekend.

Preece added: “We look to prepare for another double-header Saturday-Tuesday. It's just beyond me – I can have a moan about it because we've started well but why we throw so many fixtures in so early in the season, it's crazy.

“Look how many players we've had out injured. It's so difficult and again it just weights it a little bit more towards the full-time teams because they can rest and recover.

“But we'll prepare for Saturday, another tough game, again another well-managed team, Leamington. Be nice to see Paul (Holleran, manager) again. He'll be a bit gutted as they conceded in the last minute against Kiddermister (they lost 3-2).

“It's always a tough game there and we haven't had a lot of joy there over the years so we'll have to be fully prepared and ready to go.”

Of their latest victory against none-man King’s Lynn on Monday, the Chorley boss said: “It was a really solid performance. We probably weren't at our best – I think there were quite a lot of tired legs.

“But I think because of how well we do at home and how we start home games, probably how we started on Saturday (at Hereford), teams are coming fired up. You saw that with the Chester game – the sending off in that – and again today, a sending off really early.

“They were fired up, wanting to close us down, stop us being expansive, not let us get playing, and it's a red card.

“We got the goal straight away which was important and we had the chance with Ello (Mark Ellis) to make it two, and we didn't get it.

“King's Lynn, fair play to them, found a way of making it difficult for us but also having a threat going forward. They were well in the game.

“I thought we looked a little bit tired and not at sharp as normal but we got through to 1-0 at half time. We've talked about how important it was these next 45 minutes because we'd done so well earlier on in the previous four games that if we could finish it off with a win, then that would be a magnificent start.”

Preece admitted he had doubts over the sending off of the goalkeeper but added: “When they go down to nine men, that makes it comfortable for us and we get the goal pretty much straight away to make it 2-0 so then it's damage limitation by them.”