Danny: Lots for us to look forward to
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MACCLESFIELD FC were due to finalise their preseason preparations on Tuesday evening as the Express went to print as Danny Whitaker’s side gear up for Saturday’s FA Cup clash at Wythenshawe Town.
The Silkmen were scheduled to entertain FC United at the Moss Rose in midweek, their final warm-up fixture before the real thing kicks off at the weekend.
And with the Pitching In Northern Premier League West Division starting with a home game against Clitheroe on August 13th, Saturday’s crunch extra preliminary round tie at Wythenshawe represents Macc’s curtain raiser.
Whitaker’s men were beaten 4-0 by a Wrexham side widely tipped as National League favourites at the weekend, and the manager was not disheartened by the result.
“We have to remember where we’re at and where Wrexham are at,” he said. “We’re not going to be playing the favourites for the National League every week and we said to the lads in the dressing room afterwards ‘don’t beat yourself up, don’t be going home thinking it’s the end of the world’. It isn’t, we’ve got loads to look forward, we’re building for next weekend and the start of our season.
“We have to take the positives out of the game, the negatives we can look at and dissect, we’ll speak with the lads during the week and make sure we are ready.
“The positive from the game is the way we competed in certain aspects and moments of the game. We did hold our own and if you take the goals out of it and type of goals we did concede, if we hadn’t conceded those types of goals then they wouldn’t really have broken us down because there were no instances where we were opened up by the opposition and the goalkeeper was having to make save after save. It wasn’t a case of that. So the goals were quite poor in the manner in which we gave them to Wrexham but that’s football.”
Whitaker was not anticipating too many changes for the midweek friendly against FC United.
“It will probably be a similar team to Saturday, we’re still building,” he said. “We probably won’t give the lads as many minutes as they played at Wrexham and we will look to change a few things around, our defensive setup and set-plays and it’s just about building up to Saturday and getting the lads ready.”
Two of the goals conceded at Wrexham came via set-pieces, something Whitaker is keen to cut out.
“The goals that we conceded were disappointing, it was the manner of them with no one taking charge in the box and going and competing,” he said. “A couple of the goals were set-pieces and you want your players to compete. They were all in a specific area in the box and it’s just a case of competing - as soon as a man comes near you, go and attack the ball, don’t be on your heels, get on the front foot and attack the ball. So from that perspective it was a little bit disappointing.
“It was a tough afternoon, Wrexham are a strong, strong team and they will be up there at the top of the National League with the squad that they’ve got. They have a big, big budget, so you’d expect them to be there or thereabouts – but I thought throughout the game we caused them problems, though our final third decision making at times left a lot to be desired.
“That’s not like us, really. Looking back over pre-season we’ve been really good going forward and it was just one of those days where we got in the final third and the shot or cross type was the wrong type.
“Wrexham made it difficult for us to play with the wing backs and the two strikers that they had up top dropping in and making it very difficult. They outnumbered us in midfield so we had to address that at half time and I thought we started the second half very well in terms of us playing out from the back. We gave the players some different ideas and they took them on board, so that was very pleasing to see.”
Whitaker started the weekend’s game at Wrexham with a trialist at centre half and said: “We’re always looking to strengthen, you never stop looking in this game you have to have Plan B, C and D in the background to fall back on. We need those options.”