CHORLEY welcome Oxford City to Victory Park tonight for the first of three successive home games as the Vanarama Conference North side look to get their promotion campaign back on track.

The Magpies suffered their second league defeat in a row, losing 4-1 away at Harrogate Town on Saturday afternoon, playing for more than 70 minutes with 10 men after captain Andy Teague was sent off.

That leaves Garry Flitcroft’s men light on numbers in defence, with Tom Smyth still some way off a return to first-team action as he recovers from injury.

The manager confirmed after the Harrogate match that he will speak to chairman Ken Wright about bringing in defensive cover ahead of a run of seven games in the next three weeks as the seventh-placed Magpies look to take advantage of their games in hand to jump into the play-off places.

At the other end of the field, the former Blackburn Rovers midfielder still has a wealth of attacking options which may allow him to rotate his squad.

“That’s the strength of our squad at the minute,” Flitcroft said.

“We can look to rest players if we need to. The lads have worked tirelessly and we may look at changing things.”

Chorley head into the game four points off the final play-off spot, while Oxford City could climb above the Magpies if they were to win.