Non-league club create history with remarkable number of wins in nine days to secure play-off spot

Non-league club Charnock Richard scraped into the play-off places of the North West Counties Football League Premier Division - by winning a remarkable six games in nine days.

The village side, based in Chorley, went into the final week of their campaign in step nine of the English football pyramid knowing they had to win all four of their final games to get into the top five places.

Initially, the league had announced that the play-off ties would take place on Saturday, April 27 - which would have given Charnock just seven days to play their four league games, as well as a play-off clash if they got there.

They had already produced a 6-0 thrashing of Prestwich Heys on April 18 to kickstart their run, before a 2-1 win over Glossop North End on April 20.

The play-off dates were then changed to Tuesday, April 30 after Charnock thrashed Irlam 5-1 last Monday evening.

They were then in action again just 24 hours later, and travelled to Barnoldswick Town - a 50-minute drive up the M65 - before winning 2-0.

Thursday then saw another away trip - this time to Colne, whose ground is situated around 40 minutes away. Charnock won 1-0.

That meant their entire season rested on Saturday's 3pm home fixture against Pilkington, which they won 2-0 to secure fourth place and a historic play-off spot.

They will take on Bury in the semi-final on Tuesday, which will take place at Gigg Lane.

Charnock's achievement is made all the more impressive by the fact that they play some of their home games at nearby Burscough - who are in the same division - and 10th-tier side Darwen FC.

They scored a remarkable 107 goals in their 46 matches, the third-highest of any club in the division.

In fact, if you were looking for goals, the NWCFL is the place to find it - a total of 2,023 goals were scored by the 20 teams across their 24 matches.

Speaking to BBC Radio Lancashire after the win over Pilkington, Charnock Richard manager Ryan Donnellan said: "Thankfully, we've got two days off this week and then we go again on Tuesday at Bury.

"They've [the players] just put themselves through it every night. They have 24 hours off, they come in, get rubs off the physios to try and get their legs going.

"We've kept pretty much the same starting XI in every game as well. They've done unbelievable, and I'm so proud of them."