Macclesfield Town 1-2 Lincoln City, Saturday 15th September 2018

Macclesfield Town 1-2 Lincoln City, League 2, att. 2589 (1000+ Lincoln) 

Welcome to ....

Here we go again.  Thanks to Macclesfield’s promotion from the National League (nee Vauxhall Conference) I’m back down to 90 of the 92.  Still, any excuse to miss the Super Reds’ visit to the Ricoh Arena.  Not only the most soul destroying of any trip to a football ground, but, as I discovered from our German coach, Barnsley hadn’t won in 95 years.  Why did I not know this fact?  (FYI, Barnsley lost 1-0; I didn’t miss much.)

The teams (and lion) meet and greet.

So, a trip to the Cheshire stockbroker belt and a meet up with 3 other Londontykes (2 who’ve moved back up north), who’d also resisted the allure of Coventry’s suburbs.  Super!  I met The Captain off the train and we pootled up the hill to the chippy before strolling through Macc towards the ground, via a couple of pubs.  

A quaint wooden gate onto the pitch.

The first, the Silk Trader, looked tremendous, with a selection of ale to boot.  But there was nobody in it, so after a pint we walked on to the Railway View.   The landlord was a character, there were a few people in, but the beer choice was poor to say the least.  By now our 2 mates had rocked in, having parked their jalopy.  We spared them a pint and headed to the ground.

The view towards the exec boxes/social club.

Rather marvellously, Macc’s social club allowed anyone in, as long as they had a match ticket.  We purchased ours and headed to the bar.  Beers quaffed overlooking the pitch on a fine Cheshire day.  What wasn’t to like?  But we’re not exec types, so we went outside, walked through the stand seats and took a pew on the terrace behind the goal, with the hardcore.  Well, you can’t beat a bit of ‘Maccy Maccy Maccy Maccy Macclesfield.’  Bizarrely, there were a few rows of seats in front of us.  Had they been rammed in just so’s the club had enough seats for the football league?  I can’t be bothered to find out.

A (not so?) random bunch of seats on a terrace.

Moss Rose itself is a very tidy stadium.  The away end is an open terrace behind the other goal, but a small Main Stand, straddling the halfway line, has a paddock in front, running the length of the pitch.  The (real) main stand, the one with the exec facilities, is a pitch-length cantilever with exec boxes at the back, leaving the aforementioned home end, complete with roof.

The mascot chats to a fan.  

Today’s visitors were league leaders Lincoln City, backed by an excellent following.  Although they’ve spent big, they’ve spent wisely (Shackell, Akinde) and look good value for promotion this season.  They absolutely battered Macclesfield, who were kept in it only by a superb performance from the goalkeeper, Kieran O’Hara.  Turns out he’s on loan from Man U.  I’ll say this – he’ll be playing higher up than Macclesfield next season.

Lincoln attack their end.

O’Hara had already made several fine saves before Lincoln went one up after 21 mins, a drive from inside the area.  Save after save followed, before, in the 83^rd minute, Macc shocked the visitors, equalising when a long cross to the backpost was hooked back across goal.  Surely Macc couldn’t nick a point?

The Main Stand.

No, they couldn’t.  O’Hara tipped one over the bar, just as he was named MOTM but he couldn’t get on the end of the resultant corner and Shackell drove home through a crowd of players.  Nothing less than Lincoln deserved, but you had to feel sorry for the keeper.  It’s going to be a long season for Macclesfield.

Indeed.  This IS Macclesfield...

The Captain had a train to catch and dashed off, while Molly and Wadd jumped in the car.  However, I had an hour to kill and found a super little craft beer place in Macc town centre, the Red Willow.  Pub of the day.  I really enjoyed my trip out today.  Is it too much to hope Barnsley play here soon?  (Be careful what you wish for…)

Come on you Silkmen!

The Damage:

£15 ent
£3 prog

= £15

The Tunes:

Thirst For Romance (Cherry Ghost)
Slowdive (Slowdive)
React Test 1 (Various)
Abbey Road (The Beatles)
Pentamerous Metamorphosis (Global Communication)

Moss Rose panorama

1st view of ground

A mosaic outside the ground.

Looking towards the home end from the social club.

The players warm up.

The view from behind the goal.

Back of the home end.

Loud and proud!

Those were the days...last season, in fact.