Key men crucial to Silkmen’s rise
MACCLESFIELD Town manager John Askey believes the return of some of his team’s key players has put them in an extremely strong position to ignite their quest for promotion.
The Silkmen returned to winning ways on Saturday after earning a 1-0 victory at Torquay United.
The game saw the debut of Jared Hodgkiss after several months out through injury, while George Pilkington also featured for Macc.
And Askey believes having those options available to him make Macclesfield extremely strong defensively, which will massively help them in their bid to challenge near the top.
“It’s the first time that Jared has played and now we’ve had George come back into the fold,” he said.
“We finally have some good options in those key areas. Obviously, it’s a nice position to be in.”
The win over Torquay came one week after the Silkmen had suffered a disappointed 4-1 home defeat to Maidstone United.
Askey was very unhappy with his side’s display during that game at the Moss Rose, and therefore was delighted to recover against Torquay and earn all three points.
“It was extremely pleasing,” he added.
“Especially after last week. We really dug in and I felt we should have, possibly, had some more goals.
“I thought we really deserved the win, and I was particularly happy with the clean sheet – it was important after last week to bounce back in that manner.”
The victory for Macclesfield saw them climb up to eighth in the National League table, just two points off league leaders Sutton United.
Macc will now hope to make it two wins in a row when they have a difficult match at home, welcoming second-placed Aldershot Town to the Moss Rose.