Warrington Grange 6 Chorley Ladies 3

CHORLEY were walloped on Sunday and made to pay for some poor defending and lack of control in midfield.

The game started at a hectic pace and Chorley conceded a goal within five minutes when a deflected cross presented Warrington with the easiest of chances to take the lead.

Straight from the restart, Chorley swept forward in numbers and Sarah Dufriesne scored a quick equaliser with a shot from the edge of the box.

With both teams struggling on an uneven pitch, the game turned into an aerial assault at both ends, more like a game of tennis than football, with cultured midfield play being ignored.

Warrington looked more comfortable with the play and scored from a corner after 15 minutes with little or no resistance from any of the Chorley players. Five minutes later the score was 3-1 when more lethal play led to another shot beating keeper Karen Browne.

It looked at this point as if the score could be double figure, but Sharon Schofield got a hold on the game in midfield while Natalie Parry and Janine Jones worked with great discipline.

It was Schofield who created Chorley's second, picking up the ball in the centre circle before running wide to the wing and hitting a peach of a cross for Jones to head past the keeper.

Warrington looked to be struggling and Chorley's revival was helped when some of their younger players also started to perform. Rebecca Rigby, playing a support striker role with Jones, laid on the equaliser just before half time with a deft touch to Jo Schofield who hammered the ball into the back of the net. At half time the score was 3-3 and Chorley had everything to play for.

They also began the second half eager and energetic and should have taken the lead on 55 minutes went Jones went down under a heavy challenge in the box and took the spot kick herself, only to hit the shot on to the bar.

This proved to be a turning point in the game as Chorley sparked only fitfully after the miss. Within five minutes they were a goal down and lost their composure completely to let Warrington run out easy winners.

With six of their first team players under 16, Chorley have tremendous potential for the future, but manager Karl Rigby will be concentrating on the immediate prospect of playing Bury at home on Sunday, March 22. Kick off is 2pm at Charter Lane, Charnock Richard.

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