Dress rehearsal for big day at Wembley
MACCLESFIELD Town manager John Askey hopes the experience of playing in front of a lively crowd against Lincoln City on Saturday will have benefitted his side ahead of the FA Trophy month.
Lincoln clinched the National League title over the weekend by defeating Macc 2-1, with a packed stadium of over 10,000 fans in attendance for the game.
Once the league cam- final next paign is over, the Silkmen will then turn their attention to their Trophy final against York City at Wembley on May 21.
It will be a tough match for Macc, but Askey hopes experiencing the atmosphere at Sincil Bank will be a boost for his side.
“Hopefully it stands us in good stead for Wembley as we got commitment from the players against Lincoln,” he said.
“We gave it a good go and went to Lincoln with nothing to play for ourselves against a team that were hoping to secure the league, so it was a good performance by us.
“We talked about getting back to what we were doing in previous games by working really hard for each other and competing, and I thought we did that.”
Lincoln’s victory over Macc came after two goals from Terry Hawkridge cancelled out Mitch Hancox’s opener. While his team came up short, Askey was happy with what he saw from his players throughout the game.
“Overall I was quite pleased with our performance. I thought there was very little in the game,” he said. “The biggest danger they posed was when there were a lot of free kicks, but we had some decent chances.”
Askey also praised Lincoln for managing to secure the title after an impressive year for the football club.
He added: “I think they deserve to top the league. We didn’t want it to happen against us but they’ve been excellent all season.”
Coming up short against Lincoln was Macclesfield’s third loss in a row, following on from defeats against Woking and Solihull Moors.
The Silkmen were hoping to get back to winning ways when they made the trip to Dover Athletic as the Express went to print on Tuesday, and Askey was expecting a difficult game.
“It is going to be tough. We have had a lot of games lately but hopefully the lads can roll their sleeves up again,” he said.
“Whatever game you are playing in you always want to do your best to try and win the match.”
Following the midweek game against Dover, Macclesfield end their season with a home match against Sutton United. Macc came up short when the two teams met in the reverse fixture earlier this season, with Sutton picking up a 2-0 victory at Gander Green Lane.