Spennymoor Town 2 Chorley 0: Magpies must travel after Moors defeat​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The Moors’ deserved victory enabled them to become the only team to complete a league double over Chorley this season.

If Jamie Vermiglio’s men are to progress to the semi-final on Wednesday they will need to play much better than they did in this game.

The Magpies’ boss blasted the performance as ‘unacceptable’ and the ‘worst of the season’, as he offered apologies to the supporters who had travelled to the North East to witness it.

He did however reserve praise for keeper Matt Urwin who pulled off three outstanding saves and ‘kept us in the game’.

In an action-packed contest, both keepers distinguished themselves, the Moors’ Jordan Amissah also making a couple of exceptional saves, while both sides hit the post and bar.

But though they had their moments in attack, the Magpies were not as compact as usual and were guilty, in Vermiglio’s view, of poor decision-making at times.

Urwin’s first intervention came in the third minute when he made a superb save from Jordan Thewlis before Jacob Blyth wasted a clear shooting chance for Chorley.

In the game’s big turning-point, Urwin appeared to have denied Thewlis brilliantly again after 17 minutes, racing off his line to get both hands on the ball, but Thewlis went down and the referee surprisingly awarded a penalty, which Glen Taylor tucked away. It looked a very poor decision.

Willem Tomlinson cracked a great shot against the Spennymoor bar on the half-hour before the Magpies suffered a double injury blow, losing both Blakeman and Tomlinson.

The Moors went two up on 51 minutes when Urwin could not hold on to a Taylor attempt, allowing Mark Anderson a simple finish.

As Chorley hit back, Connor Hall unluckily planted a header against the bar with Amissah beaten.

Both keepers made outstanding saves midway through the half, Urwin at point-blank range and then Amissah in somehow keeping out a Brad Holmes header from a free-kick.

The goalmouth action continued apace in the closing stages: Spennymoor’s Joe Tait sent a far-post header against the upright at short range when it seemed easier to score, Amissah saved smartly low down from Billy Whitehouse.

And in the dying minutes Urwin crowned a top-class display by tipping Rob Ramshaw’s bullet header on to the bar.

CHORLEY: Urwin, Halls, Leather, Baines, Whitehouse, Tomlinson (Okome 42), Blyth (Bright 65), Shenton, Blakeman (Henley 34), Hall, Holmes. Subs (not used): Calveley, Sampson.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​