​Crucial month awaits Magpies as they look to maintain National League North play-off bid

The Magpies face seven games in less than a month including a number of midweek matches, starting with Tuesday night’s trip to Scarborough Athletic in the National League North.

On Saturday, they welcome Peterborough Sports to Victory Park before entertaining Darlington the following Tuesday.

Preece knows the congested run of fixtures will severely test his small squad, which has been hampered by the loss of key players Jack Hazlehurst and Scott Wilson in recent weeks.

The Magpies boss is hopeful that those two could be back in contention this week, their full recovery aided by the fact that Saturday’s game at Banbury United was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

Having lost two out of their past three games, Chorley have slipped out of the play-off places but Preece is eager to look at the bigger picture.

"We are still in a strong position,” said Preece. “But the season is only going to get tougher. If you look at the run of fixtures we have got in November, it’s relentless.

"It’s going to be a real test for us this next month, but if we come through that in a similar position to what we are in now then it will put us in strong position for the rest of the season.

"I think if you look at the last 10 games, we are third in the form table so it just shows that we have done well.

"We want to be greedy, we want to be in that top three – that’s where we are trying to get to.

"We will always try to push ourselves to finish as high as we possibly can but November is going to be a big month for us.”