VENUE #55 MACCLESFIELD TOWN Moss Rose

VANARAMA

CONFERENCE

Macclesfield Town... 2

Woking... 1

Saturday 6th December

             2014

@ Moss Rose Ground

        Macclesfield

     Travelling to football matches using the train as my main form of transport is becoming a real pain and I'm seriously considering a change.  I always check on Nation Rail Enquiries website before I set out on a journey to see if there are any problems that may cause delays to the trains that I plan to catch and on doing so today I find that my train from Wolverhampton to Macclesfield had the yellow triangle with the black exclamation mark warning sign saying that this train could be delayed due to a person being hit by a train in the Coventry area.  You may remember that I had a similar problem last time out when I was stuck in Peterborough on a train for more than a hour and a half which subsequently meant I missed almost half hour of the game. This time however the train was only half a hour late and made up ten minutes during the journey.  

     Although there seemed to be an awful lot of people alighting the train at Wolverhampton when I finally managed to get aboard I found the carriage that I'd selected still rammed with people.  There were no seats and people standing in the passageways and in between the carriages.  This could have been a knock on effect from delays and cancellations of trains due to the earlier incident in Coventry or it might have been the fact that it was three weeks to Christmas and the trains final destination was Manchester Piccadilly.  I stood by the door and luggage compartment for three parts of the journey managing to get a seat at Stoke-on-Trent for the last twenty minutes.

 

pictures on the wall outside the ground 

   Macclesfield Town going into today's game are currently fifth in the table with a chance of going second if today's results go for them and if they manage to topple Woking who currently hold that second spot.  Manager John Askey makes just the one change from the 3-1 defeat at the hands of the league leaders Barnet at the Hive Stadium last Saturday, Andy Hall comes in for Alex Grant who sits it out on the bench for this one.  Garry Hill boss of Woking makes two changes from Tuesday night's 2-0 home win over Altrincham, Jack Marriott and Scott Rendell retire to the bench while Joe McNerney and Dean Morgan start the game.

     This wasn't a "Silky" performance at all by the home side for it was Woking who started the brighter and in the first ten minutes of the game Macclesfield found it hard to get out of their own half but after 13 minutes and with their first attack of the game they took the lead when Danny Whitaker found himself in space with the ball just outside the Woking penalty area, he fired a low left footed drive which was only parried by the Cardinal's keeper Ross Worner and into the path of the Silkmen's striker Matthew Barnes-Homer who slotted the ball home from six yards for his third goal of the season.

Teams shaking hands before match

     Macclesfield had several more chances before the break to increase their lead and started to look stronger than their opponents but failed to take the initiative and put the game beyond Woking and ultimately paid the price for six minutes into the second half and Woking were level  Dean Morgan found himself in the Macclesfield box with the ball at his feet and he fired a shot which was blocked and came straight back to him but this time he hit the ball wide of the Macc's keeper Rhys Taylor and into the bottom corner of the net.

     The game went from one end to the other after the equaliser and both teams squandered good chances and it looked like a draw would be the final outcome until the last minute of the game when Barnes-Homer got free down the right and pulled the ball back and towards  Paul Turnbull via a mistimed clearance and he fired the ball through a crowd of players and inside the bottom near post to send the Macclesfield fans wild for their side hung on till the final whistle and extended their unbeaten home run.

   

The John Askey stand

 Macclesfield Town have been playing football at Moss Rose since 1891, it has a capacity of around 6,335 of which just over 2,500 are seated.  The Silk FM main stand is covered and stretches a third of the length of the pitch and straddles the half way line.  Across on the other side of the pitch is the Henshaw's stand and is where I watched the game, it is a fully covered, single tiered and a all seated stand which was built in 2001.  At one end behind the goal to the right as you're sitting in the Henshaw's stand is the Macclesfield Audi stand which is a mix between seating and terracing with the terracing being behind the seats, (strange), and is fully covered.  At the other end behind the goal is the John Askey's terrace which is uncovered and designated to away supporters as is a third of the Henshaw's stand. 

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