Chorley 2

AFC Telford United 1

CHORLEY, beaten only once at Victory Park since the turn of the year, ended the season on a winning note with this eleventh home victory to the delight of the majority of a splendid crowd of 1,247. It was a bizarre afternoon’s action which for an hour had a distinctly end-of-season atmosphere before the excitement kicked in.

There was minimal excitement in a scrappy first half punctuated by a move of quality which put Chorley ahead on 22 minutes. Dale Whitham and Mark Ross combined cleverly down the right and Ross cut the ball back towards the penalty spot for Darren Stephenson to sweep it low into the corner of the net.

Telford, apart an energetic opening spell, offered little goal threat and the best effort was an audacious bicycle kick by Josh Wilson which flew over the bar.

Both sides had a ‘goal’ disallowed for offside in the opening minutes of the second half and the game was meandering uneventfully towards another routine home victory when events took a dramatic turn. First, Ross almost stole the show with a classic piece of opportunism. Spotting keeper James Montgomery well off his line, he launched a sublime strike from beyond the halfway line and was unlucky to see the ball clip the upright of the vacant goal.

Shortly afterwards in the 74th minute Telford snatched an unexpected and comical equaliser. A free kick floated beyond the far post was needlessly intercepted by Chorley full-back Will Beesley who contrived to head the ball against the crossbar and Wilson was on hand to gratefully nod the rebound past the flailing arms of Sam Ashton from close range.

The setback triggered an immediate Magpies’ reaction and Telford’s makeshift defence, badly hampered by the loss through injury of both centre-backs and a full-back by the hour mark, was understandably stretched to the limit. Stephenson in irrepressible mood struck a post and then saw another fierce goal-bound shot blocked in the six-yards’ box with Montgomery appearing wrong-footed.

But the Magpies’ top-scorer and player-of-the-year was not to be denied and when he again burst in on goal with two minutes to go he went down under challenge near the by-line. The referee pointed to the spot, a decision hotly disputed by the Telford players and later described as ‘scandalous’ by Bucks’ boss Rob Smith. Stephenson was unruffled by the delay in taking the penalty and calmly sent Montgomery the wrong way for his 21st goal of the season in all competitions.

"I don’t know whether it was a penalty,’ said a very happy Matt Jansen afterwards. "But there was no doubt we deserved to win. I’m really looking forward to next season now and with the preparation we’ll put in place and two or three additions I’m sure we will be a stronger side.

"And I’m delighted that we’ll have Darren Stephenson with us again for the start."