Chorley Ladies 4 Bury Ladies 5 CHORLEY had a flying start in this game, going into the lead after only five minutes, when Janine Jones ran wide on the right and crossed the ball in for Sarah Dufresne to drive the ball past a stunned keeper.

There then followed a comedy of errors which saw Chorley score another two goals, but at the wrong end of the park. The own goals did nothing for the confidence of the home team and even the strikers were affected, missing easy chances and squandering opportunities normally taken with ease.

Although they tried hard to get back on terms, the first half ended with Bury leading 2-1.

Chorley again started well and looked most likely to score, but it was Bury who struck first when a penalty was awarded for handling in the box and the spot kick was confidently hit past keeper Karen Browne. As the Chorley heads dropped, so did their work rate and Bury started to dominate the match. They were helped with some dreadful defending and fourth goal was a gift from a simple cross which only needed a tap in to stretch the lead.

Manager Carl Rigby then decided to bring on Rebecca Rigby and the young striker had an immediate effect when she collected a ball on the edge of the box, beat a defender and lashed a left foot shot into the roof of the net.

At 4-2, Chorley looked to be getting back into the game, but paid the price of pushing too many players forward and Bury struck again on 80 minutes.

Another Chorley substitution was made, this time Debbie Kirkman, and again the change looked to have an immediate impact. Within five minutes the home team had pulled one back when Kirkman passed to Jones who swivelled sharply just inside the box and looped an audacious lob over the keeper.

With two minutes remaining Chorley charged forward and Sharon Schofield drilled a low drive into the corner of the net to make the score 5-4.

There followed a frantic few minutes to the final whistle when Chorley could have equalised, but their efforts came too late and it was Bury who ran out the eventual winners.

Chorley's last game of the season is away to Chester next week.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.