A POWERHOUSE first-half display by a no-nonsense Chorley side sank the Steelemen who were effectively out of contention once the home side bagged their third goal just before the break.

Matt Jansen’s men were too hot for a creaking Corby defence to hold in a rousing opening half which delighted a remarkably large Victory Park crowd of 1,011.

But to their credit, relegation-threatened Corby showed enough resilience after the interval to deny the Magpies any further goals.

However, the visitors’ steel was sometimes cynically misused and their card-count would have been higher from a more vigilant and less indulgent referee. As it was, the official flourished two yellow cards and a red to Ben Milnes who was sent off midway through the second half following a second late challenge.

Goals for the eager Magpies looked guaranteed from the off when Josh Hine burst clear but lost control as he rounded keeper Sam Donkin. He was to be rewarded with a brace of goals which put Chorley firmly in control. On 19 minutes, Hine headed in a well-flighted free-kick from Andy Bond who looked a class act throughout. The lively Darren Stephenson provided the cross in the 33rd minute from which Hine added a second, his twelfth of the season, with a fierce shot into the roof the net. And the killer third goal arrived with perfect timing a minute before half-time, Adam Roscoe stealing in to slide home Bond’s corner from close range.

The gloss on Chorley’s first-half exhibition was to some extent tarnished by the early loss of skipper Andy Teague, concussed after bravely getting his head to a free-kick in the goalmouth, and by a second departure just before the interval, that of James Dean who hobbled off with what looked like a longer-term setback. On a positive note, Will Beesley, newly signed on loan from Southport, had an eye-catching debut at left-back.

Corby resumed in fiery mood but despite applying pressure they were unable to seriously test Sam Ashton until finally a Greg Mills pile-driver forced the keeper into a flying save to punch the ball aside. Mills later put the ball into the net only for an offside flag to cut short his celebration.

The Magpies did not really test Donkin in a quiet second half until the closing minutes when the keeper pulled off a very smart save at his near-post to deny Hine a hat-trick as the striker cut in and let fly.

It was no surprise that in deteriorating weather conditions the tempo of the second period had not matched that of the first. As a delighted Matt Jansen observed afterwards, the damage had been done and the points secured in that impressive first half to lift the Magpies three places to eighth in the table.