Winning close to preparations
MACCLESFIELD Town ended their pre-season with a victory after defeating Stockport County.
Goals from Chris Holroyd and Danny Rowe helped their team overcome their National League North opponents at the Moss Rose.
The Silkmen came flying out of the blocks and it took them just two minutes to make the breakthrough.
A cross into the box from Jack Mackreth was met by Holroyd, who volleyed home into the back of the net to open the scoring for the hosts.
Macc were dealt a blow after 16 minutes when left-back David Fitzpatrick was forced off through injury.
The defender suffered the injury when he was attempting to deal with an aerial ball inside the pen- alty area, with Dan Cowan having to come on to replace him.
Despite the change, Macclesfield still continued to dominate proceedings, and George Pilkington had a rare chance to get on the scoresheet when he went close, but he couldn’t direct his header on target.
Jack Sampson then tried his luck for the home side when he shot from the edge of the box, but his powerful effort smashed against the crossbar.
It looked like the Silkmen may suffer another injury when Neill Byrne went down after a collision with goalkeeper Ritchie Branagan, but thankfully he was able to continue.
Stockport had their best spell of the half during the closing stages, but the Macclesfield defence was able to stand firm and ensure that they went into half-time with a 1-0 lead.
The second half was a bit more physical, with the match not resembling a friendly as a number of hard tackles were flying in from both teams.
The Hatters picked up where they left off and had another positive spell, with Macclesfield boss John Askey bringing on substitutes Kingsley James and Ollie Norburn to try and put his team back in command.
Macc managed to do just that after 65 minutes when Rowe scored a wonderful individual goal to double his side’s lead.
He picked up the ball a long way out from goal before driving into the heart of the Stockport defence, beating four men and converting to make it 2-0.
Stockport almost pulled a goal back late on when Scott Spencer had a shot, but it hit the post and was cleared by the Silkmen defence.
It meant that Macclesfield managed to keep a clean sheet, with the match ending 2-0 in their final friendly of the summer.
Askey managed to use a number of his substitutes in the match, while Branagan, Byrne and Pilkington all completed 90 minutes.
Up next for the Silkmen is their opening game of the National League campaign when they host Torquay United at the Moss Rose on Saturday.
Branagan; Halls (McCombe 46’), Byrne, Pilkington, Fitzpatrick (Cowan 16’); Mackreth (Sutherland 46’), Lewis (Norburn 46’), Whitaker (James 46’), Rowe ( Trialist 70’); Holroyd (Fletcher 46’), Sampson (O’Connor 67’)
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