Chorley boss Andy Preece has set his players a play-off spot target

​The Magpies currently sit in seventh spot with the six clubs finishing directly behind the eventual champions going through to the end-of-season promotion lottery.

The league table remains tight with only a handful of points separating Preece’s men and many of the teams both above and below them.

After a mixed bag of results over a hectic run of fixtures, the Magpies have seen clubs such as Gloucester City, Alfreton Town and Spennymoor Town gain ground on them.

But the clubs directly above them have also found the going tough in recent weeks and have failed to steal a march in the race for a play-off position.

And with the Magpies due to face four of the clubs in and around them in their final eight games, Preece knows it is still all to play for in the final few weeks of the campaign.

"I think we are going to have to win five or six of our remaining games,” said Preece, whose team welcome Banbury United to Victory Park this weekend.

"Some teams are beginning to find a little bit of form – teams like Buxton and Spennymoor who have come from a position where they were looking like they were struggling to where they might make a late push for the play-offs.

"Then you’re seeing teams who are up there who are finding it difficult – it’s just so hard to get results in this league.

"We play four teams who are around us in the table and someone is going to drop points so it sort of puts it in your hands.

"They are going to be tough games, big games but the sort of games that you want to be involved in.”

Preece will not be looking past the challenge of Banbury this weekend. The Puritans may be down in 17th spot in the table but a win for them this weekend could reawaken an outside chance of finishing inside the play-offs.

"Banbury are all right,” said Preece. “They have got games in hand and they were in a play-off position for a long time – up until October time.

"They had a good cup run and they have just slipped away a little bit in the league but if they win all their games in hand, they will be one of the teams right in that play-off mix.”