Is Macclesfield's overdue relegation finally here?

By theimps.tk
July 15 2009

Now, every year there are certain teams that are predicted to go down, occasionally they may surprise everyone and have a decent season, but they generally always seem to be located in the lower-reaches of the table and although I have nothing against them personally, I think that Macclesfield’s time has finally come to return to the non-League.

In their twelve years in the Football League, they've only had two decent seasons, winning promotion in 97/8 and making the Playoffs in 2004/5, otherwise it's been constant relegation battles. They follow Lincoln City like a little kid follows their older brother or sister and in their twelve years in the League, have only had one player who actually attracted mass-interest and have generally spent their time looking up at the rest.

I know that most people reading this now will think that I've chosen easy candidates for the bottom two, but I genuinely think that Accrington and Macclesfield are the two worst teams in the division, especially now as Macclesfield have lost virtually all of their players who can score every now and then. Martin Gritton left for Chesterfield part-way through the summer, Gareth Evans was linked with Lincoln but ended up at Bradford, Francis Green has gone to Kettering Town and Simon Yeo initially left for a job in the army, only now to be playing for Droylsden.

They haven't exactly been replacing them with brilliance either, also keeping up PLAYER : WRIGHT a Macclesfield Town tradition....that tradition being signing several former Imps during the pre-season. They've brought in Hamza Bencharif, Paul Morgan, Ben Wright (right) and Nat Brown, four players of extremely mixed abilities and luck. Infact the purchase of Wright could be the biggest risk of the lot. The striker, who is quite injury prone, had two very different seasons at City, finishing as leading goalscorer in 2007/8 but then scoring just three goals last season, missing hatfuls of chances.

In true Keith Alexander tradition, he has also started filling out Macc's squad with non-League players. Ross Draper joined from Hednesford, Stephen Reed from Weymouth and Carl Tremarco from Wrexham joined the party, but the biggest gamble out of those brought from non-League could be Kyle Wilson, a signing from FC United of Manchester. Wilson ended last season as one of the leading goalscorers in the entire non-league, but just ask players such as Daryl Clare, Dene Cropper or Justin Richards if a good record in non-League necessarily guarantees a decent record in the League.

If there's one side in this division that you'd confidentially predict to get thrashed then it is Macclesfield Town. During last season they lost 4-0 on four occasions, including on the opening day, a scoreline quickly becoming tradition at that time of year. They also lost 6-0 at home to Darlington, 3-0 at Crewe in the JP Trophy, 4-1 at home to Exeter and away at Morecambe, with the last thrashing being a 3-0 defeat at Bury.

Losing 25 of their 46 games was statistically the joint worst record in the division (with Chester City). Only Chester and Port Vale scored fewer than Macclesfield, whereas only Aldershot and Chester (again) conceded more. A goal difference of -32 was only worsened by Chester and only four sides recorded fewer wins (you've guessed it, one was Chester).

So are there any reasons for optimism for Macclesfield? Not really, they've gotten rid of all their proven goalscorers and replaced them with has-beens or players that are unproven at this level, a dangerous tactic indeed.

With crowds continuing to dwindle and fewer and fewer teams in this division being worse than Macc, it's hard to see them not finishing outside of the bottom two.