FA Trophy preliminary round

A SPIRITED second half fightback failed to salvage CHORLEY'S FA Trophy hopes at Stocksbridge Park Steels on Saturday.

The opening goal on 17 minutes came as no surprise as Ross Hannah lobbed John Gillies before adding his second minutes later from the edge of the box.

But against the run of play Chorley got back into the match on 27 minutes when Steels keeper Richard Siddall could only parry a Matt Woods header and Neil Smith was on hand to tap in.

The Magpies' joy was short-lived, however, as four minutes later Duncan Bray scrambled in a third for the hosts.

There were some signs of a Chorley revival before the break but with Smith pushed up front for the second half the visitors promptly began to create a bagful of chances.

Smith hit a shot just wide on the turn and later sent David Eatock clear but his effort was blocked by Siddall, who also dealt with Smith's follow-up.

Chorley continued to press, and after Smith's shot had produced a corner, the ball was knocked back in by Richard Fogarty and whipped into the net by David Eatock with five minutes left to play.

Although Gillies had to make a fine save to keep Chorley in contention, there was still time and opportunity for the Magpies to pull the game out of the fire.

But they were twice denied by Siddall, who saved at short range from Fogarty and then produced a brilliant diving stop to keep out substitute Andy Howarth's rocket.

ROSSENDALE bowed out at Belper with barely a whimper as they badly missed the creativity of new Colne signing Paul Forsyth.

After player-manager Mark Molyneaux produced three excellent saves, the home side deservedly took the lead on 18 minutes through Chris Peet.

Nazha then thumped the woodwork with a spectacular effort before adding the second on the half hour.

The introduction of new signings Mark Redshaw and Dean Cooper with 20 minutes to go sparked some life into Dale and they enjoyed their best period of pressure throughout the match.

Redshaw tested Ingham with a shot from distance and Cooper dragged an effort wide from the edge of the penalty area.

Stuart Tulloch saw his speculative attempt drift just wide of the upright and Ian Barker should have done better with a header.

But any hopes of a comeback were crushed with a couple of minutes remaining. Walker pounced on Danny Whittaker's mistake to square the ball to substitute Chris Davies, who rolled it into an empty net.

On Friday night CLITHEROE lost heavily at home to Kendal Town for the second time in a fortnight.

Dave Foster opened the scoring for Kendal after just six minutes but the Blues were back on level terms 10 minutes later when Gary Jackson's shot was blocked by the goalkeeper but Paul Stansfield headed into the empty net.

Jackson should have put Clitheroe in front before half-time when he was clean through on goal but Foster completed his hat-trick in the second half and Mike Jack finished the tie off on 78 minutes.