Forest cut down by magical Macc
ASUPERB performance from Macclesfield Town saw them secure an emphatic win over top of the table Forest Green Rovers.
A brace from Kristian Dennis and goals from Paul Lewis and Danny Whitaker sealed another home win on an excellent day for John Askey’s side.
The Silkmen came from behind to win the match after Jon Parkin scored on his return to the Moss Rose.
Forest Green were the better side in the early stages and they went ahead when Parkin broke the deadlock inside two minutes after Keanu Marsh-Brown had the beating of Andy Halls on the left flank.
Macc responded well though and if it was not for a fine save by Jonny Maxted, Lewis would have equalised soon after. A searching cross by Halls found the midfielder but his goal-bound effort was tipped over.
After 14 minutes, the hosts were level though thanks to a gift from the Rovers keeper. Maxted made tough work of a simple clearance as he sliced the ball horribly allowing Silkmen top goal scorer Dennis to steal the ball and poke home from a tight angle.
As the home side continued to grow into the game, a flurry of halfchances followed the goal, most notably falling to Lewis and Whitaker.
Just past the half-hour mark, Neil Byrne did superbly to recover and keep the scores level. As Rovers winger Kurtis Guthrie ran on to a wellweighted through ball, Byrne got back to make a last ditch tackle to keep it at one a piece.
Right on the stroke of half-time, the game took another twist as a deep corner from David Fitzpatrick on his first start found George Pilkington.
His header back across goal reached Lewis on the line and his flick hit the hand of Rob Sinclair. The referee pointed to the spot and Sinclair was given his marching orders. Dennis put the ball down on the spot and he sent Maxted the wrong way to make it 2-1.
Looking to make good use of the man advantage, the Silkmen started the second-half where they left off and Whitaker almost found Dennis with an out swinging cross but Darren Jones stepped in to intervene.
The chances kept coming for Macc and another good bit of link-up play between Halls and Lewis fashioned another opportunity. Halls was again the provider with a teasing cross which found Lewis unmarked but his glancing header went just over the bar.
In the 64th minute, another superb delivery followed, this time from Danny Whitehead, which found Lewis in the middle who made no mistake by thumping home past the despairing keeper.
Jack Sampson could have made it four just five minutes later as he was well found in the area but Rovers managed to get plenty of bodies in the way of his shot.
Dennis then drew a fine save from Maxted with quarter of an hour remaining to deny him his hattrick. A curling 25-yard free-kick looked destined for the far corner but the keeper reacted well to parry it away.
With seven minutes to go, Whitaker completed the rout after Chris Holroyd ran on to a great pass by Whitehead to square it for Whitaker.
He hit it first time from 12 yards out to compound Rovers’ misery further and make it a long trip home for the Rovers faithful and one to remember for John Askey and his side.