CHORLEY were made to work hard to claim a vital three points on the road against Hereford, their seventh win in eight league games.
Both sides started the game fairly well albeit without any real end product, that until the 16th minute where Justin Donawa sent in a long-throw, Mark Ellis flicked on with his head into the path of JACK HAZLEHURST who volleyed the ball sweetly past Curtis Pond.
Jack Hazlehurst celebrates scoring the winning goal for Chorley against Hereford (David Airey)
Hereford looked to get themselves back into the game quickly, consecutive corners following but Max Dearnley for the most part left with very little to do in goal.
The pattern of the game continued at a frantic pace after the restart and almost the entirety of Edgar Street thought the hosts had equalised on 58 minutes, Yusuf Ceesay firing an effort into the side-netting after beating off the challenge of Donawa.
Chorley themselves very nearly doubled their advantage only minutes later, Justin Johnson squaring it to Hazlehurst who forced an excellent save out of Pond who’s initial mistake had let the Magpies in on goal.
Hereford’s best chance of the second-half to come away with an equaliser on the day fell to Jason Cowley who couldn’t strike his effort cleanly as the ball sailed over the crossbar and that’d be that as Andy Preece’s side continued to push on inside the playoff places.
Hereford: Pond, Skinner, Hudson (Teixeira, 64'), Downing, Ceesay, Babos, Cowley, Williams (Phillips, 77'), Okeke, Southern (Rooney, 87'), Cameron. Unused: Sterry, Walby.
Chorley: Dearnley, Donawa, Ellis, Wilson, Henley, Calveley, Glynn (Horbury, 71’), Maguire, Hazlehurst (Whitehouse, 90’), Ubaezounu (Johnson, 60’), Sampson. Unused: Shenton, Nolan.
Goalscorers: Hazlehurst (16').
Cautions: Williams (45'), Donawa (48'), Cameron (90'), Whitehouse (90').
Referee: Jonathan Chadwick.
Assistants: Joseph Larkin & Daniel Clenton.
Attendance: 2,779 (38 away)
Up Next: We make the trip up to South Shields this Tuesday, as we look to continue our excellent winning run.
