Spennymoor manager Jason Ainsley wants to finish as high as possible in the Vanarama National League North as they prepare for the visit of league leaders Chorley to the Brewery Field this afternoon.

Moors clinched a play off place with a magnificent 3-2 win at York City on Good Friday, but now Ainsley wants at least a fourth placed finish.

They go into today’s game in fourth place in the table, a point ahead of Altrincham, and three points behind third placed Brackley, with the end of the season play offs coming up in ten days’ time.

Finishing third would mean exemption from playing in the qualifying round of the play offs, but fourth place would mean a home game in the qualifying round and as the table stands at the moment, a clash against Telford – although Blyth are making a late run.

“I’ve told the players that we must finish as high as we can, we don’t want to be travelling away midweek in the play offs,” he said.

“There’s no way that we’re going to lie down, we beat Chorley away from home earlier in the season, and we want to do the double over them. We’ve picked up again after an horrendous March, we’ve won three out of our last four – we need to continue this momentum. We’ve already achieved our main aim this season, which was to reach the play offs, but we still want to do well.

“We’re hoping for a big crowd. We took nearly 500 down to York on Friday – which was a fantastic day – and we’re hoping for quite a few more Spennymoor fans at the game.

“Plus, Chorley are well supported and could win the league if results go in their favour, so they’ll be bringing 200 or 300. It should be a great day, and hopefully a crowd of over a thousand.”

Moors overcame injuries to defender James Curtis and striker Mark Anderson to win 3-2 at Bootham Crescent on Friday, and Ainsley said; “I thought we deserved to win the game on our second half performance. We were slow coming out of the blocks at the start of the game, but we got our noses in front at half time thanks to a setpiece.

“Everyone will back the players if they put a shift in, and they certainly did that on Friday. We need the same again against Chorley.”

However, skipper and central defender Curtis will be missing because of a head injury that he suffered at York, which means that Kris Thackray will probably start the game alongside Scott Harrison.

Striker Anderson suffered a recurrence of his hamstring injury, and will probably be out for the rest of the season – midfielder Andy Johnson has already suffered the same fate.

Chorley, meanwhile, could win the title today if they win, and second placed Stockport lose at home to Curzon Ashton.

They had a crucial 2-0 win over Stockport on Saturday to put them two points clear at the top and within touching distance of the only automatic promotion place.