It’s about playing the numbers game now for Chorley boss Preece

​Preece's men beat Banbury United 3-0 at Victory Park on Saturday with goals from Justin Johnson, Carlton Ubaezuonu and Adam Blakeman to clinch a play-off spot –- and a home tie – ahead of the final scheduled game of the season this weekend at Peterborough Sports.

Fourth-placed Chorley could still finish third if they win at Peterborough and Brackley fail to beat relegation-haunted Blyth Spartans.

Saturday’s win was welcome relief after a 3-1 reverse at Buxton last weekend was followed by defeat at King's Lynn in midweek.

But for now Preece's focus will be on ensuring he has the numbers to be in best shape possible for the end-of-season shootout as the Magpies target promotion to the National League.

"I'm just trying to manage the squad," said Preece. "The lads are tired, they're carrying little knocks and it's just trying to manage it. It was difficult with the 4G at Buxton, I had to have a look at that."

Preece left several regulars out of the side for that game but told Chorley FC TV: "At Buxton I could have played all those players and then them not be available for the play-offs.

"And then what does that do? We end up with 13 players for the play-offs and we can't do that, so it's difficult because we lost two games on the bounce and I think we've done that very, very rarely.

"But as we've done all season, we bounced back with another good performance. Whatever happens, we've got another game at home. We're good at home so we'll be confident if we have to play in the preliminary play-offs."

As well as the three points against Banbury on Saturday, there were other aspects that pleased the Chorley boss.

"A good day all round," he said. "No injuries and we look forward to Peterborough.

"I'm really proud of the team and what we've done, what we've managed to do and it's been a real team effort right the way through the club.

"Everybody's pulled in the same direction and without that there's no way we could have achieved what we did.”