Silkmen’s ‘Final’ push for survival M
ACCLESFIELD Town head coach Mark Kennedy has labelled all of his side’s remaining league games as cup finals after losing back to back matches over the past week.
The Silkmen were beaten 1-0 at Newport
County on Tuesday, before another 1-0 defeat at home to Northampton Town on Saturday.
It has left them in 22nd place in the League Two table, six points above the relegation zone, and Kennedy has stressed just how important all of the remaining matches are.
“Every game is a cup final and that’s not because of the position of where we are. We’ve got through an incredibly difficult set of games recently and the next two will be equally as difficult,” he said.
“It was a horrible game against Northampton for many reasons, but we knew what to expect coming into it and I certainly wont criticise anyone’s style of play. All we have to do is focus on how we play, and it was always going to be a really tough game.
“I’m disappointed because you don’t want to lose games of football but again, we had a really good chance in the first half to get our noses in front. I’m really pleased with the effort and commitment from the team and that’s all we can ask from them.
“The message at halftime was clear, we said that we were going to have to change the system to five at the back to adjust to the elements and Northampton’s style of play.
“We had to try something, and I thought bringing on Jacob Blyth would help us with two big men up front and getting runners off the back of them.
“We need to better in our decision making, technique and what we’re going to do to other teams. Its frustrating that we react to the game when we go a goal down, but I can’t knock the work ethic of the team its phenomenal. When we look at the physical stats after the game its again absolutely phenomenal.”
Up next for Macclesfield is a trip to Brisbane Road on Saturday to take on Leyton Orient. The O’s are in 18th place in the table, having won eight, drawn 10 and lost 13 of their 31 matches so far this season.
Orient head into the match on the back of an impressive win, picking up a 3-0 away victory against Stevenage on Saturday. Two goals from Rouel Sotiriou and a strike from Ousseynou Cisse secured the visitors the win.
Macclesfield will be hoping for a similar result to when they played Orient earlier this season, earning a 3-0 win at the Moss Rose. Goals from Theo Archibald, Emmanuel Osadebe and Theo Vassell clinched all three points for Macc back in August.