CHORLEY made a fruitless visit to Stocksbridge Park Steels where the only steel on show was provided by bottom-of-the-table Stocksbridge against a Magpies side displaying an all-too-familiar lack of bite.

Chorley surprisingly took the field without their defensive lynchpin Ian Leather whose pace at the back was clearly missed. Stocksbridge took the lead on 22 minutes following a handling offence outside the penalty area by Simon Marsh, and the Chorley keeper was lucky to escape with just a yellow card.

But when the free kick was pulled back to Craig Ludlam, he left Marsh helpless with a fiercely-struck shot into the top corner of the net.

Home keeper Ross Turner rescued his side when he snatched the ball off David Eatock's toes and later again did well to block the shot when Eatock wriggled clear of his marker. At the other end, Jeremy Illingworth fired over from an inviting chance.

There was no punch in the final third of the field from Chorley and the introduction of David Sutch for the ineffective Danny Mills livened things up and Turner was forced to make a double save from Andy Mason and Peter Smyth. Illingworth came close to doubling Stocksbridge's lead, his lob beating Marsh but drifting just wide.

Stocksbridge went two up against the run of play with 12 minutes to go. Mark Schofield's poor clearance was charged down by Gary Hurlstone who drilled a low shot past Marsh.

Stocksbridge and several other teams closed the gap on Chorley in the UniBond First Division.

RESULT: STOCKSBRIDGE PS...2 CHORLEY...0