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I do like Chorley. As a town and as a football venue. The football ground is old fashioned, nicely dishevelled but weather proof, has proper pies and is a short walk from the centre. The town centre itself is compact, close to the station and with a vibrant beer culture. What's not to like?
Saying all that, I wasn't going. Saturday before Christmas is normally a difficult one to get around, a combination of over exuberant yuletide revellers and stressed travellers with hordes of cases, so my plan was to enjoy a long Friday afternoon in the pub without having to worry about an early Saturday morning start.
The long Friday afternoon in the pub happened, during which I received a text from my normal travelling companion, he had also previously said Chorley was a non starter. You all know how this works …. not going, not going, definitely not going ….. I suppose we could consider it ……
So it was just before 6am when I left my house. Far too bloody early, though I was aware enough to cross the main road not at the zebra (see previous reports mentioning this pointless but relentlessly adhered to superstition). At least it's a direct train from Cardiff to Manchester and it was one of those nice long locos with first class, no need to consider an upgrade as it was quieter for over half the journey in the front carriage. My mate joined at Hereford, his 7am train from Ledbury not cancelled at the last minute this time, we rolled into Piccadilly just after 1015.
We decided to swerve the chaos of Manchester city centre and their version of the modern phenoma that is the faux Christmas markets (bah humbug) and catch a connection to Chorley immediately. An interesting trip past the eclectic surroundings of central Manchester and Salford, canals, flyovers, decaying buildings, grand victorian red brick edifices and a whole variety of modern blocks of flats, some look great, some scary, some, frankly, just plain ugly, perhaps depends on your architectural outlook. I mentioned Christmas travellers with their hordes of cases above and we (hopefully) helped two lost and bewildered ladies, clearly just arrived from Mumbai who'd got on the wrong train at the airport. They wanted to get to Sheffield not Blackpool (our train's destination), last seen explaining their predicament to a railway member of staff at Bolton station, I hope they get to South Yorkshire by Thursday!
Once in Chorley we found a cafe for some much needed food before our first pub stop, the Bob Inn, which is situated among stalls and food outlets in the traditional covered market. A quick trawl round the Malt n Hops (proper classic pub), Ronnie's Bar, Ben's Brewery (where we met two travelling London Bulls) and back to the Bob Inn, it won the award of best venue of the day, a high bar (sorry).
The short walk to Victory Park took a little longer than expected as, with segregation in place, we had to walk a fairly long way round to the away entrance. The game was just kicking off as I wandered in, first stop was for a butter pie (legendary local culinary product) and I was still scoffing it when we conceded our all too customary early goal. Again, as last week and on other occasions, it looked just a bit too easy, an uncontested cross found a Chorley forward in space for a routine finish.
I'd not even worked out our starting 11 by then either, for the record it was: Richardson, Skinner, Hudson, Quansah (Preston on the bench), Howkins, Mafuta, D'Ath, White, Osborne, Hamilton, Williams in our regular 4231 formation.
It could have got worse, Richardson was called on to make several saves, in one short spell he tipped the ball over the bar three times to keep the scoreline respectable. Chorley, supposedly low on confidence after a poor run of results, were finding space and time far too easily.
Gradually we did get into the game, Osborne shot narrowly wide but it was against the run of play when we levelled halfway through the first period; good play from Hamilton gave Williams a sight of goal and his effort looped over the keeper (I assume via a deflection).
The remainder of the half was far more even, I might even venture to say we looked the more likely, Mafuta created one good opportunity and 5 minutes before the break Osborne headed home at the back post to put us in front. Except the flag was up for offside, I guess that's why he was in so much space but hard to be sure from the far end.
In our first visit to the Bob Inn we'd had a chat to two Chorley fans, a typical self deprecating conversation between lower league football fans trying to outdo each other on who was the poorer team (I can't imagine it works that way when you get Chelsea and Manchester City fans having a similar discussion). One grumble from us was we'd been all too consistent in our slow starts albeit with better second half performances (think Chester, Peterborough, Alfreton recently for example), so to be level at half time after another pretty gruesome start was possibly the portent for a successful end to our afternoon. Sadly, gruesome would prove to be the appropriate word for the next 15 minutes.
Chorley started on the front foot and forced a couple of corners. From one of them they seemed to take an age to take it. Whether that was a deliberate ploy or not, it worked. Our defending at the backpost was non existent, an inexplicable free header putting the home side in front again.
It got worse! We somehow survived the next ten minutes or so before we went further behind. Another good save from Richardson, but the ball wasn't cleared and again there seemed too much space allowing the time for a free shot to increase Chorley's lead. Richardson appealed vehemently, perhaps for an offside, but to no avail.
Five minutes later we were dead and buried, a nice move with two good passes and a fine finish across Richardson. Again it all looked a bit too easy, with no pressure on the ball.
By this time many of the, perhaps 150, Bulls’ fans on the away terrace could no longer contain their frustration and loud chants of “we want Caddis out” were hardly a surprise.
McFarlane and Nto came on for Mafuta and White as Chorley looked to turn a heavy defeat into an embarrassment. Fortunately, their efforts turned more into holding onto their lead as we came more into the game, albeit far too late for a serious recovery. A Howkins header hit the bar and after a corner was partially cleared Williams picked his spot from 12 yards for a smart finish. We could have pinched another one to set up a grandstand finish but in reality we were well beaten, I struggle to pinpoint any particular reason or player but the number of times Chorley players found time and space made the game a difficult watch. Despite conceding 4 our man of the match was Richardson, which tells you everything.
A tight travel schedule and not wishing to risk missing connections meant we felt we had to skip our post match wind down in a pub. Inn the Dog House across the road from the station will have be visited another time. I'd say next season, but we're back in the bottom four, there are noises about player departures (not just Omari), these are difficult days.
Nonetheless, however poor this performance was, it was our first defeat for a while. Am i straw clutching? And some easy (gulp!) Christmas derbies in front of us.
Just for the record I made it home just in time for Match of Day after three pretty packed but timely train journeys. A long day. At least my next away game, at Merthyr, is very local even if I can't get home on public transport after the game.
COYB
Nigel Preece