Silkmen yet to reach potential
MACCLESFIELD Town head coach Daryl McMahon insists his side still aren’t the finished article despite their impressive start to the season.
The Silkmen are in seventh place on 10 points after three wins, one draw and just two defeats so far this season.
They continued
their decent start with a 2-2 draw at Stevenage on Saturday, Joe Ironside’s 85th minute spot kick earning them a share of the spoils after the home side had overturned Ben Stephens’ opener for the Silkmen.
The result ensured Macc remained among the play-off positions and McMahon feels there is still plenty of room for improvement.
And he identified his side’s work without the ball as key to their progression.
“We have to learn the off-the-ball side of the game by staying patient, staying in your shape and remaining calm,” said McMahon.
“Once we do that then we’ll be able to pick teams off, and it is something that we will continue to learn because we’re not there yet.
“Often this season we’ve been the team that has the majority of the possession, but on Saturday it was probably the first time we didn’t have more of the ball than the opposition.
“Our goalkeeper Owen Evans made two brilliant saves in the first 15 minutes, but we spoke about breaking the half into three fifteen-minute periods to help us manage the game better.
“I don’t think we managed the first fifteen well enough, I thought we gave them too many opportunities.
“I thought in the second fifteen we were better where we got the goal, and again in the last third of the half we were good because we nullified them. We went into half time fairly happy with the work we did.
“However, there were spells in the game where Stevenage were on top and we became too emotional instead of being cold and doing our jobs properly.
“I will keep saying it; we’ve got a really young team in terms of the games they’ve played.
“In this journey they are on, they will learn so much.
“The quicker they learn little details such as not getting carried away in the emotion, the quicker we will become a really strong team.
“I thought we played too deep, too early. We invited pressure onto us too early in the game, we didn’t get behind them and create chances enough either.
“But let’s not kid ourselves, Stevenage are a really good side and the league table may say otherwise, but they’ve got
‘The quicker they learn little details... the quicker we will become a really strong team’
some terrific players.
“They’ve got strength on the bench with the likes of Newton and Taylor, but I’m sure we’ll look back on this draw and see that it was a really good point.”
Macc are back in action at home this weekend, as they welcome Crawley Town to the Moss Rose. Crawley have also started well so far this season, sitting just one place below McMahon’s side in the League Two table, with only goal difference separating the two teams.