Chances go begging in Barrow loss

MACCLESFIELD Town came up short against one of their National League play-off rivals after a narrow defeat against Barrow.

Richard Bennett got the winner from the penalty spot for the visitors just after the hour mark to earn them all three points at the Moss Rose, despite also having Akil Wright sent off in the game.

While the Silkmen may have come up short, manager John Askey felt his players gave everything that they had.

“We dominated the game more or less from start to finish, and created a lot of chances,” he said.

“The only thing I can criticise the players for is not putting the ball in the back of the net, but apart from that you can’t ask for any more.

“We’ve been struggling to hit the back of the net, and all we can do is keep working, keep creating the chances and eventually they’ll go in.

“Chris Holroyd had another good chance again, while Andy Haworth had three very good chances. “Connor Jennings has been unlucky with the header, and I’m sure there’s other chances but you just come away really frustrated after games like that.

“I bet that Barrow can’t believe it, but if we keep on playing like that then we’ve still got a chance of a play-off place.”

Macclesfield played well in the first half of the match, with the likes of Danny Whitaker, Kingsley James and Chris Holroyd all threatening.

The Silkmen had to make a change just before the break when Andy Halls went off, replaced by John McCombe.

Barrow were then reduced to 10 men at the start of the second half when Wright made a late challenge on David Fitzpatrick and received his second yellow card.

Despite being a man short, Barrow were given a good chance to take the lead when they were awarded a penalty a few moments later.

It came in controversial fashion after the referee judged Holroyd to have handballed in the box.

The Macclesfield players protested, but Bennett stepped up and smashed it past Scott Flinders to make it 1-0 to the visitors.

Askey’s men thought they had levelled things up instantly when Holroyd had the ball in the net, but the linesman ruled it out for offside as the forward attempted to make amends for conceding the penalty.

Try as they might, Macc couldn’t find a late equaliser.