New faces star
MACCLESFIELD Town’s last preseason fixture away from home ended with victory after they picked up a comfortable win over Nantwich Town.
Two goals from trialist Emmett O’Connor plus a goal from Kingsley James helped the Silkmen run out winners at the Weaver Stadium.
The Macclesfield starting 11 featured a number of trialists looking to impress, and manager John Askey was pleased with what he saw.
“Obviously we changed the side around and got another clean sheet. They tired towards the end but managed to get three goals,” he told the club’s official website.
“One or two players did really well and no one has picked up any injuries. You want to get into that winning habit. It doesn’t do much at the start of pre-season but it’s good for confidence.
“Pre-season has gone well overall, the main thing is we haven’t had too many injuries and hopefully Danny Rowe and Paul Lewis will be available next week so if we keep it like that for the rest of pre-season, it’ll be good.”
It was a fairly quiet start to the match, but Macclesfield created the first clear-cut chance after 20 minutes.
Chris Holroyd managed to break clear of the Nantwich defence before trying his luck, but his effort was pushed onto the post by Dave Parton.
The Silkmen then had to be alert at the other end as Josh Gordon forced a good save out of Craig Ross in the Macclesfield goal.
Macc thought they should have had a penalty a minute later when Dan Cowan’s cross appeared to hit a Nantwich defender on the hand, but the referee waved away the protests.
The two teams went into the interval with the scores goalless, with Askey bringing on Richie Branagan and John McCombe in place of Ross and Neil Byrne.
Just like the opening 45 minutes, it took a while for the second half to get going, but Macclesfield eventually made the breakthrough when they took the lead in the 59th minute.
James found himself in space on the edge of the area before firing a powerful shot into the bottom corner to make it 1-0.
More changes were made by Macc as Askey looked to utilise his bench, with Jack Sampson and George Pilkington replacing Chris Sutherland Dave Fitzpatrick.
The substitutions appeared to give the visitors a boost as a few minutes later, O’Connor managed to chip substitute goalkeeper Jack Moorhead from distance to double his side’s lead.
Trialist O’Connor ensured he made a big impact during his performance as he wrapped up the win during the closing stages later after he got on the end of Jack Sampson’s pass before converting to make the final score 3-0. and
‘Pre-season has gone well overall, the main thing is we haven’t had too many injuries’