In front of a bumper bank holiday crowd of 549, Chasetown had a glorious chance inside the opening minute as Kev Hemagou rushed through on goal and Stafford cleared the danger through Levi Read as the striker went past goalkeeper Adam Whitehouse.

Paul Sullivan then should have given the home side the lead volleying over the bar from close range.

Stafford pushed forward on a number of occasions but Chasetown’s defence stood resilient against the league leaders preventing the table toppers from a clear sight at goal.

Rangers bossed the opening minutes from a possession point of view with a succession of corners but still failed to trouble John Bateman with a serious shot at goal.

Sullivan fired over the bar after a neat pass from substitute Nick Turton while Scholars full back Mike Williams was booked for simulation after a challenge on the edge of the penalty area.

Ben Haseley saw a shot blocked by Williams midway through the half as the game remained at stalemate.

Bateman had to be at his best to keep out Christian Dacres at his near post before Haseley acrobatically volleyed the rebound wide.

With ten minutes left, Haseley got ahead of his defender to power a header towards the bottom corner but somehow Bateman got down to claw away his effort and then recovered to make an even better save to keep out the rebound.

Five minutes from the end, Williams drove the ball across the six yard box and Turton left the ball for substitute Stan Mugisha who fired home from close range against his former club.

Stafford were unable to force an equaliser and Mugisha was a whisker away from a second.

Chasetown: Bateman, Williams, Thompson, Slater, Eze, Dance, Washbourne, R Davies (Mugisha, 79 mins), Hemagou (Turton, 62 mins), Sullivan, J Davies (Edwards, 85 mins)

Other subs: Adaggio, Pond (not used)