It was a case of too little too late for Chorley on Saturday as Durham City travelled back up to the North East convincing 3-1 winners.

Durham went into the game unbeaten in the league and having only conceded one league goal so it was clear that Chorley would have to work very hard for whatever they took from the match.

Tony Hesketh's came into the contest without a win in four and made two changes to the side that lost to Lancaster the previous weekend with the return of former Magpie Gavin Lee-Ellison and Roger Sharrock replacing Michael West and Steve Burke.

Chorley started brightly and showed intent from the beginning, however it was Gavin Cogden for Durham who broke the deadlock on 21 minutes.

He latched on to a neatly threaded through ball and slotted it cleanly to the left of goalkeeper Peter Collinge.

It was no surprise when Durham added to their lead after 40 minutes.

Adam Johnstone cut inside towards the right hand side of the goal, then doubled back to create space for his driven effort to find its way into the bottom right hand corner.

Cheered on by encouraging crowd in excess of 250, the Magpies came out for the second half looking much better and Jordan Connerton hit the post on 49 minutes.

On 54 minutes, Cogden doubled his personal tally for the visitors.

Collinge flapped at a corner and Cogden was on hand to finish.

Chorley didn't let their heads drop and narrowed the deficit to two goals after 64 minutes.

Roger Sharrock scored at the end of a fantastic move to give Chorley a glimmer of hope but it turned out to only be a consolation.

• Chorley: Collinge, Finch (Burke 74), Henry, Mullineux, Smalley, Ellison, Eckersley, Parillon, Connerton (Crossley 86), Goodeve, Sharrock Unused: Fletcher, Nolan, Jones


• Attendance: 258