Danny demands reaction in Vase
DANNY Whitaker will be demanding a positive reaction from his Macclesfield FC side when the Silkmen cross swords with Winterton Rangers in the Buildbase FA Vase this weekend.
Whitaker was left seething after Macc were pegged back to a 1-1 draw against Ashton Athletic at the weekend. After a low key first half Ashton had a man sent off and the Silkmen were in the box seat after Kielen Adams fired them into the lead.
But after wasting a glorious chance to double their advantage, Whitaker’s men were caught out on the counter attack.
“I just hope it hurts them as much as it hurts us,” said Whitaker. “I’m not going to sleep because that should have been three points in the bag. It was massively disappointing.
“Football’s all about reactions. Even if you win you have still got to go and react the next week and back it up. We didn’t back up a win on Saturday after the two great results last week but it’s about the players going away now and reflecting.
“It massively feels like a loss - the manner of their equaliser, the nature of how the game was going... we should be putting those teams to bed, we really should.
“I’m absolutely devastated to say the least – we should be beating them and that’s the be all and end all.”
Tom Clare missed the game due to a tight Achilles and the side struggled to reproduce their best.
“The first half was flat,” said Whitaker.
“We did create a few half chances and got in some really good positions.
“It was just the final ball or the decision making in the final third was lacking, which we spoke about at half time.
“We put a really big emphasis on the tempo, making it really high because I felt if we’d kept it really, really high they would have ran out of steam, but it just wasn’t to be at the end of the day.
“We said at half time if we really got after Ashton, got a goal, we would be able to push on and create two, three or four and it should naturally have happened.
“But we didn’t do that, we just seemed to sit back and thought the job was done in terms of ‘right, we’re 1-0 up against ten men,’ that laziness, I think.
“Sending offs can go one way or the other – when you are playng against ten men they have nothing to lose to a certain degree because they are a man down.
“But football being football, if you don’t put your chances away then it can come back to bite you.
“The equaliser was one extreme to another. We should be scoring at one end, one long ball down our end and we’re in a bit of trouble.
“It was lazy attacking play because we should have scored, no doubt about that, and we’re 2-0 up and game over.
“On the flip side, we should be wise enough to shut the back door and just be more resolute. I’ll have to watch it back because I’m not entirely sure what went on, but it shouldn’t be happening.
“You have to trust your players - as soon as they walk over that white line it’s them who make the majority of decisions.
“You can shout on and help them but sometimes you are helpless.
“It’s about every player taking accountability for their own performance.
“I’m a big believer in coming off that pitch with no regrets - if you do that and you can look every member of staff and every team-mate in the eye saying I’ve given it everything today even if you’ve not got the result you wanted, you can’t grumble with that.”
‘I just hope it hurts them as much as it hurts us. It was massively disappointing’