MATT’S READY FOR A REPEAT
CHORLEY are no strangers when it comes to the end-of-season play-offs after completing a hat-trick of appearances by seeing off Spennymoor Town in the 2018-19 final, writes PETE TSCHEREWIK.
Goalkeeper Matt Urwin stole the plaudits when the Magpies won on penalties in both the semi-final and final – and he isn’t ready to give away his spot-kicks secrets this time either as Jamie Vermiglio’s side face off against York City in an eliminator on Wednesday.
“I won’t go into much detail about my strategy for penalties because you never know who might see this and anything can happen in football,” the 28-year-old smiled when telling The NLP.
“Of course we will look into that side of things but I feel confident enough in my own ability to handle that kind of situation and have shown that in the past.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have experiadded.
enced what it’s like to compete in the play-offs on a fair few occasions and I think it’s the best kind of football that you can get in your career, the rush is like no other when you’re out there on the pitch.”
Adam Blakeman scored Chorley’s only goal in a 2-1 extra-time defeat to FC Halifax Town back in 2016-17 and feels the experience that he and several of his teammates have of play-off football could prove to be of a real advantage to them this time around.
“You look at our changing room; we’ve got a good handful of lads who have been there and done it in the play-offs,” Blakeman “Even though these games are a oneoff I think we can draw a lot from what we’ve been through before; hopefully we can use that to push on some of the younger players we’ve got here that bit further for the occasion.”
Magpies captain Scott Leather is hoping to go one better than he did by scoring in the 2018-19 final and remains confident again this time round.
“You have to prepare for it like any other game,” he went on. “It will be tough going from the Saturday to a Wednesday night but I’ve always been a believer in training the right way, eating the right things and being consistent across the board.
“York are a really good side and a full-time outfit who’ve got a good following. Whether they’re at home or away against us they’ll have their supporters behind them.
“I think it’ll be a really tight game but I believe we can compete with any team in the division on our day.”