Lions Stall At Victory Park

Chorley struck the only goal of the night midway through the first half at Victory Park to leave The Lions in the relegation zone, read more in our match report sponsored by BuildADrive.com.

The key moment of the night came after 32 minutes when Harry Cardwell stole the ball off of Gabriel Johnson before unleashing a powerful curled shot past Brad Wade and into the top corner from 25 yards out.

Despite a late push from Marcus Bignot and Russ O’Neill’s side in an improved second half performance the solitary strike was enough for the hosts to claim victory.

The first 45 was dominated by Chorley with chances for Will Tomlinson, Tyler Garratt, Cardwell and Arlen Birch were all wasted causing no concern for Wade.

However Cardwell did come closest for the hosts before his goal when Elliot Newby’s cross picked out the tall striker but he planted his header just past the post with Wade scrambling.

It wasn’t a half without chances for The Lions though, Kian Harratt made his return from injury to the starting line-up and he saw his shot from 20 yards out deflected wide, the resulting corner saw captain Hamza Bencherif head goalwards but it was an easy save for Matt Urwin.

The next chance in the game was the only one taken all night, Johnson lost possession in the middle of the park after good defending from his side, Cardwell seized the chance and looked up before smacking the ball past Wade leaving the Rochdale loanee with no chance of saving it.

Kaine Felix was looking for a spectacular goal himself but his effort from 30 yards out spun wide with Urwin easily gathering the resulting corner.

Cardwell had a chance to get his second of the night, Newby played the striker through on goal but Wade made the angle tight and he shot wide.

The second half didn’t continue at the same pace as the first with the hosts nowhere near as dominant and it took nearly fifteen minutes for the first chance of note.

Connor Hall played in Tomlinson but he couldn’t make the most of the chance when one on one with Wade and shot tamely at the keeper.

The best chance for The Lions all night fell to Jonathan Wafula, the forward was neatly played through on goal by Harratt but he shot straight at Urwin who did well to spot the danger and dash off of his line.

Nathan Newall continued his run in the starting eleven and nearly struck his second Lions goal with a shot from the corner of the area but it went just past Urwin’s post.

Adam Haw was introduced as a substitute and had a couple of chances to equalise, with his first he did well to get a shot off when surrounded by Chorley men, he gathered the ball after Felix’s effort was deflected and poked just wide.

The second was created by debutant Joshua Parsons who joined the side just before kick-off, his pacy delivery just needed a touch from Haw but again he was well marshaled by the Chorley defence and the ball flashed across the face of Urwin’s goal.

The night only got worse for The Lions as Brad Nicholson hobbled off injured and could not continue, as all three substitutes had been made Marcus Bignot’s and Russ O’Neill’s men played injury time with 10 men and didn’t create any more chances.

The Lions return to action on Saturday hosting Southport at Nethermoor with kick-off at 3pm.

Marcus Bignot’s post match thoughts

Team

  1. Brad Wade, 2. George Cantrill, 3. Brad Nicholson, 4. Andrai Jones, 5. Hamza Bencherif (C), 6. Lebrun Mbeka, 7. Kaine Felix (86′ Okafor), 8. Gabriel Johnson (80′ Parsons), 9. Jonathan Wafula, 10. Kian Harratt (69′ Harratt) and 11. Nathan Newall.

Subs:

12. Mark Howarth, 14. Joshua Parsons (80′ Johnson), 15. Chukwudalu Molokwu, 16. Miracle Okafor (86′ Felix) and 17. Adam Haw (69′ Harratt).

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