Silkmen targeting runners-up finish
MACCLESFIELD guaranteed their place in the NPL Premier Division play-offs with victory at Basford United on Saturday – and boss Michael Clegg has set his team the challenge of securing a secondplace finish.
Clegg praised his side’s hard-fought performance at Basford as the Silkmen secured a 3-1 victory, despite falling behind with 20 minutes to go.
After a stunning 35-yard strike from Toby Ritzema left Silkmen arms flailing in search of an explanation, Luke Duffy’s leveller put him into double digits for the season and meant the deficit lasted just four minutes.
Basford held Macc to a 1-1 draw at the Leasing. com earlier this season, but Tunde Owolabi wasn’t going to let history repeat itself. The Belgian came off the bench to fire home a brace to guarantee victory and a spot in the playoffs later this month.
With Radcliffe crowned champions on Saturday after a 2-1 win away at Whitby, the Silkmen’s focus will now be on securing second spot which would allow for a home tie in the semi-final of the play-offs, as well as the final should they get there.
“I didn’t expect anything less, the team were fighting for their lives”, said Clegg, after his side had just scored three goals in the final 20 minutes. “No one’s going to roll over for us, we’re going to have to graft for every point we get and coming back to win 3-1 with so little time left just shows everything about the squad.
“Everyone believes in each other. The football we played, at times, was decent. We just didn’t look great in the final third [of the pitch] but it’s three goals and three points.”
The first-half appeared a struggle for Macc, one
which saw them dominate in possession but were unable to be clinical enough in front of goal.
The Silkmen came as close as hitting the bar in the opening two minutes, as well as a huge miss from Luke Duffy from inside the six-yard area that should have seen them take the lead.
Basford also had some threatening forces. Ritzema, a Jersey international, caused Macc trouble in their area all game and was the cause for the Silkmen falling behind after scoring a sweet leftfooted hit from range.
Captain Matt Thornill
also kept Clegg’s XI busy, a man with experience in the Championship for Nottingham Forest and in the Scottish Premiership for Hibernian.
“We’ve got some very good players. If you look on our bench and at the lads who have not made the squad today, I’m lucky, really, to be working with so many good players.
“I think if you keep playing football the right way and keep banging the drum then things are going to come.
“We were unlucky not to be 2-0 up in the firsthalf, we hit the bar [in the]
first-half and then missed the sitter. We should’ve been 3-0 up to be fair so to go a goal down was against the run of play but after that I thought we were really good.”
A number of tactical switches to the squad from Clegg saw Dan Sweeney return up-top and Laurant Mendy drop to centre-half after having played within the midfield unit in recent games.
He then turned to his bench to bring on attacking threats Alex Curran and Owolabi and was even forced to bring on Neil Kengni at full-back after Brandon Lee had to
exit following injury.
“Laurent Mendy’s a very good footballer in centre-half,” praised Clegg. “Sweens [Dan Sweeney] has earned his right to start. What a few of the fans need to know is that Tunde [Owolabi] has been playing with an injury. He’s got a really bad cut on his shin and he’s been playing with that since the Ashton [United] game and felt that he was probably a little bit too honest at Gateshead last week and you could tell he was struggling a little bit. For us, we need Tunde firing and when you get a fit Tunde
he gets goals at this level like you’ve seen today.”
In regards to his side securing a play-off position, Clegg stressed the importance of his side remaining composed and to avoid getting carried away.
“We’ve got to finish well. The aim’s got to be second [because] we want two home games and that’s how you’ve got to look at it.
“We’ve got to keep building momentum and keep winning football games. We’ve got a fully fit squad now so we’ve got no excuses - there’ll definitely be none of them from us. For us, it’s just about managing the lads and making sure everyone is fit and firing going into these last couple of weeks.”