Macclesfield Town (H) 14th Dec, 3pm

Match Centre Archive Match Centre 19/20
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“Is this what the future holds?”

Lucifer, British Sea Power (2008)

It’s strange to write a match preview knowing the game in question may never take place, and sad to think how commonplace this might become over the coming years. Now more than ever, the Football League must take responsibility and govern it’s members properly.

Otherwise, it’s the supporters and staff of clubs like Macclesfield who will continue to suffer.

Macclesfield Town

The well documented issues at the club aside, Macclesfield currently sit 15th in League Two, a point and two places above the Saddlers. They enjoyed a steady start to the season under Sol Campbell, who resigned in August, with his replacement Daryl McMahon delivering some mixed results punctuated by becoming one of the divisions’ ‘draw specialists’.

With the backdrop of worsening financial problems at Moss Rose recent form has suffered. The Silkmen were beaten 4-0 at home by Kingstonian in the FA Cup 1st Round and haven’t managed a league win since late October.

Recent League Form

Oct 22 Cheltenham (A) Lost 3-0
Nov 02 Carlisle (A) Lost 2-1
Nov 16 Mansfield (H) Drew 0-0
Nov 23 Salford (A) Drew 0-0
Nov 30 Bradford (H) Drew 1-1

Previous Meeting

The last meeting between the sides was at Bescot on 28th August 2018, a 3-3 draw in the League Cup Second Round that saw Walsall knocked out on penalties. The visitors were 2-0 up within 25 minutes through Jamie Grimes and Harry Smith before goals from Keiron Morris (33’), Andy Cook (63’) and Josh Gordon ('64) put the Saddlers ahead.

Danny Whittaker’s injury time goal squared it up at the death, and Macc won 3-1 on pens.

Played for Both

Zak Jules joined Macclesfield in January 2018 and helped them to escape relegation from the Football League last season. He signed for Walsall last summer for an undisclosed fee but is unlikely to feature on Saturday amid rumours of a spat with manager Darrell Clarke.

Joining Walsall in July 2016, Theo Vassell was described as ‘one for the future’ by then manager Jon Whitney. Vassell was immediately loaned to Chester and never player a league game for the Saddlers. Following spells at Gateshead and the Burslem Barcelona, Vassell has been a near ever-present for Macclesfield this season.

Pedro Matias began his Football League career with the Silkmen, playing 22 games for them during the 1998-99 season. Following a brief time at Tranmere he was brought to Walsall by Sir Ray Graydon, becoming a much loved figure over five seasons with the club, playing 144 games and scoring 26 goals.

Prediction

If the game is played, you’d like to think Walsall can build on a recent run of good results with a home win. That said, resilient Macclesfield have drawn three on the bounce and their players will have a point to prove. Low scoring draw, 1-1.

Match Poll

  • Walsall Win
  • Draw
  • Macclesfield Win
  • Postponed

0 voters

2

Another1-0 for me.

3

Game will be called off

300 gutted mac fans

22 pies go too waste

2 Likes
4

Game called off after 5 minutes when all the Macclesfield players get cramp trying to clear away 700 balls (launched into the ground from the motorway).

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2 Likes
6

Hopefully with talk of a takeover going ahead the game will be on and I think we’ll beat them 2-0. Lavery with both goals.

7

Of course what people forget is that awful FA Cup game finished 0-0.
We’re good at those.
Has a game ever been abandoned due to lack of interest?

5 Likes
8

Don’t start me off on the pie situation again :rofl:

9

youve had a “tough” time on them pies havent you mate,

Used too be amazing balti pie too ohhh the pain

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10

I really have mate people say to me “it’s just Pie in the Sky” you should see me duck and run for cover!!

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11

Remembering we couldn’t find a way past Stevenage in our last home league game, I’m not overly optimistic this game won’t have anything other than binary numbers making up the scoreline.

10011100

Take your pick :wink:

12

Nawww, no teams gunna score 156 :wink:

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13

… and then we lost the even more boring replay back at our place. :scream:

14

I was there, absolutely steaming. My mate saw me on Sky Sports during a minutes silence and phoned me - it was on loud ffs!

The balls being fired over was the highlight of the match, oh, and the fact that Paul Merson was a pundit on Sky within earshot of us to the left hand side.

15

Having forgotten to mention in the Port Vale thread that Jonny Brain had played for both teams, I shall definitely point out that our much-loved keeper also played for Macclesfield - more than a hundred times! And they think things are bad now. :astonished:

My favourite Macc game (which probably goes for every Saddler who was there that day) is the 7-0 thrashing in the F A Cup in 97-98. Peron and Boli oozing class, lovely.

I hope it’s on, but fear it won’t be.

3 Likes
16

Hope Macc get themselves sorted. I reckon we will paste them. 4-0. Then for the rest of the season we will go back to the usual, Walsall 0 or 1 as our scoreline. With the odd, Walsall 2 when we are lucky and doing well.

1 Like
17

If this actually gets played I’m pretty confidence this will be the rare event of a comfortable 3-0 home win.

Let’s be honest there shouldn’t be any excuse for not winning this given they’re hardly training atm or getting paid.

Said a few times I’m disappointed Walsall are below Macc in the table but can put that right with a win on Saturday.

18

No excuses with this one, should be a win.

1 Like
19

I didn’t notice until I’d written the preview that Macclesfield hadn’t trained this week until yesterday. Based on that alone I would have upgraded my prediction to a win.

2 Likes
20

Got to be a win surely if this game goes ahead

Would expect our lowest attendance of the season though with not many from either side risking buying tickets until the day and knowing it’s on and being less than 2 weeks until Christmas

1 Like