CHORLEY manager Garry Flitcroft pointed to ‘costly individual errors’ as the main reason for this narrow defeat as the Magpies returned empty-handed from the Midlands and their first league game since Boxing Day.

As a result, Chorley slip out of the Conference North top five to be replaced by Hednesford. Apart from an early flurry of goals which decided the contest, the proceedings were short on incident and excitement.

Chorley went ahead in the seventh minute when Town keeper Dan Crane completely missed a clearance and Chris Simm was left to score as he pleased into an empty net.

But the Magpies switched off at the restart and Hednesford were level when Marvin Robinson stabbed home a across fromJames Hurst.

And it got worse for Chorley as five minutes later the hosts were ahead when an unmarked Robinson fired beyond Sam Ashton.

Simm should have equalised midway through the half but fired wide when clean through then five minutes before the break the Magpies lost Smyth, stretchered off after injuring himself as he put in a tackle.

Despite Chorley enjoying a good spell of pressure after the break, Robinson was inches away from sealing his hat-trick when his header came back off the post.

“You can’t give away soft goals like those,” said Flitcroft. “Individuals have got to defend better than that. “We put a lot of pressure on Hednesford in the second half but the goal just wouldn’t come.

“It’s obviously disappointing but we’ve two home games coming up in the next week and if we can win those we’ll be right back in it.”