Tough matches at Skelmersdale and Bamber Bridge over the next six days are on the immediate agenda as Chorley bid to extend their best run of league successes for almost seven years – and manager Steve Waywell handed out a stark warning to his squad yesterday.

The Magpies put a dismal first-half performance behind them before going on to beat Garforth Town 3-1 in the UniBond First Division North, their third successive victory, and Waywell spelled it out: “We need to play much better than that at Skelmersdale and Bamber Bridge.

"We could have been punished if we had been playing a better side than Garforth.”

The Skem and Brig games are the first two of five away matches before Tony Hesketh’s Lancaster City come to Victory Park on February 20.

Tuesday’s trip to Irongate, which always attracts an army of sponsored walkers among Chorley supporters, to what is always a keenly-fought derby game, with bragging rights, was postponed on Boxing Day.

The Victory Park fixture against Clitheroe, which should have gone ahead on January 16, has been rearranged for Tuesday, March 16.