Words: Ewan Murray, Image: David Airey
CHORLEY thoroughly deserved their victory in a 4-2 win against Hereford on Saturday afternoon.
Goals from Anjola Popoola, Mark Ellis, Max Wilson and Tom Walker ensured the Magpies got the three points, despite an Andy Williams brace for The Bulls.
Chorley got the scoring underway in the fourth minute; Tom Carr got the ball in the box and set it back to Milan Lalkovic whose cross found Popoola and the man on loan from Accrington Stanley got his first goal in black and white.
Hereford hit back against the run of play quickly though, when Harley Hamilton showed some good play on the right and side, his pass found Williams and he managed to loop his effort over Matt Urwin to draw them level, thanks to a deflection off Mark Ellis.
Andy Preece’s side started the second half as well as they did the first however, and on 51 minutes a Jack Moore corner met the head of Ellis in the six-yard box, and he made no mistake firing it past The Richardson in the visitors’ goal.
Just nine minutes later, Chorley had their third, initially a Lalkovic cross found the head of Popoola who forced a good save from Richardson, Carr though latched onto the rebound and teed up Max Wilson who finished excellently into the bottom corner.
A few minutes later the points were wrapped up, Popoola did very well to hold up the ball on halfway before offloading it to Lalkovic, he opened up his body and played it out wide to Walker who drove with the ball and finessed his effort on the edge of the box excellently into the bottom corner.
Williams got his second of the day in the 85th minute to get another back for Hereford, but there wasn’t enough left in the tank for Paul Caddis’s side to mount a comeback.
The Magpies had many other chances throughout the game, but Richardson in the Hereford goal pulled off some fantastic saves, most notably to deny Carr in the first half from getting a deserved goal today.
Chorley will look to take momentum from today’s victory as they turn their attention to Boxing Day where they travel away to AFC Fylde.
