CHORLEY’S BLAKEMAN HAS THE FINAL SAY
CHORLEY shaded a tight contest and in the end it was the Magpies’ redoubtable defensive qualities which snuffed out York’s bid to get back in the game after a sweet strike by Adam Blakeman had given the hosts a half-time lead.
Head coach and manager-for-the-day Andy Preece hailed ‘a brilliant team effort’ by his Chorley side. He said: “I saw York at Ilkeston in preseason and knew it would be tough but the boys have worked tremendously hard today for this deserved victory.”
Opposite number Martin Gray said: “We were dominant in the first half, we’ve hit the woodwork twice and should have had at least one penalty. But we needed to be more patient in the second half instead of trying to be too direct.”
In truth, the longer the game went on, the less likely York looked to score and the Chorley rearguard in which centre-back Scott Leather was outstanding, managed the game very efficiently.
And in the later stages, any addition to the scoreline looked set to come from the hosts.
Josh Wilson saw a header from a corner cleared off the line and good efforts by the tricky Elliot Newby and Marcus Carver were deflected for corners.
Keeper Adam Bartlett also pulled off a great save from Newby.
In that first half when City were more threatening, Jake Wright cut in to beat Cameron Belford only to see his low shot rebound from the near post and then a similar run by Wes York ended with a shot into the side-netting. The visitors had strong penalty claims for a trip in the box waved aside as the referee had already blown for a free-kick. Belford then made a fine save from Jordan Burrow. But Chorley weathered these surges and came much more into the game. Carver lifted a shot onto the roof of the net and then raked the goalmouth with an inviting low ball which beat everyone. Chorley finally took the lead on 38 minutes with a strike from Blakeman into the corner following a neat lay-off by Newby. Soon after the break, Belford rescued Chorley with a smart reflex save from York’s piledriver and later tipped a well-struck Sean Newton free-kick onto the bar. But that was as good as it got for City who seemed to run out of steam.