Bottom Draw

By: Trevor Hewson
Date: 24/02/2010

IT'S been a while since my last report so I'll try not to bore you all too much... After feeling chuffed to have change from twenty quid for three tickets, I drove up to Grimsby sure that I'd be writing a match report on Town's first win since, well since so long ago, I can't actually remember.

That it was difficult to park suggested it was going to be a decent crowd in the Park, despite the bitter wind blowing down Barcroft St. Hopes of a really decent crowd were lessened at the sight of the tiny following from Cheshire, but given the weather, the 40 souls that found their way to the Osmond Stand deserve respect.

The game started with Town playing into the bitter wind and against a typical Keef side, this was always going to be a struggle. Knight at the back and their No.22 were particularly massive and suited to playing football many feet off the ground. Macclesfield camped in our Half for the first few minutes of the game, with Town struggling to get the ball away, not helped by Colgan having to kick it far too often as his full-backs didn't show for him to throw it to. The game was stopped for a good while to allow for the treatment of Leary who had apparently been unconscious before he hit the ground after clashing heads with Knight. this forced a tactical change which would eventually come to hamper Town's efforts. Peacock dropped back into midfield to allow Akpro on to replace Leary. For the rest of the half it was pretty much a case of regular Macc pressure with lots of corners and shots from distance, punctuated by decent and dangerous looking breaks from Town. These breaks were often down either flank with Bore/Widdowson supporting Devitt/Coulson. On one of these breaks Wright was unlucky not to get on the end of a driven cross, would Peacock have been a bit sharper and have anticipated the cross a little better, I think he would. Shortly after though, Town were in front. A similar break with Akpro and Coulson involved saw the ball flash across the visitor's goal a couple of times before falling to Devitt, who duped the defender before hammering the ball past the 'keeper. That set up the Town fans for a happy half time where they could enjoy Lincoln getting stuffed and and Torquay being a goal down.

The second half started with Town exerting pressure of their own, cumulating in Brain in the Macc goal making a tremendous save low down to keep out a Town shot. That was as good as it got for The Mariners although it should not have been the case, Akpro showed us exactly why he's so frustrating with a couple of direct and positive runs into the box, one resulting in a comical miss-hit, the other another decent save from Brain. All this was inteceded with Macclesfield drawing level. From a direct free-kick, Butcher hit a looping shot to the side of the goal that Colgan was covering, the ball looped about a bit but somehow also seemed to fly into the top corner. I've not seen it again yet, but it didn't look a good effort from our 'keeper. He did make a decent save shortly after, but it was a case of damage done. a game of only technical bookings anded on a nasty note when Jarman, on as a sub, launched into a tackle, fouled the Macc player, got involved in the resulting melee, and got himself sent-off. See what he says on Facebook about that little effort! Macclesfield came for a draw, denied us any sort of space, particularly late on, we didn't have the wit or guile to counteract this and a draw was an entirely fair result. Sadly not a result we'd have hoped for. Looking pretty scary to me.

Man of the Match, if only for that lovely bit of skill in front of the Pontoon it would be Devitt, but his goal and all-round play were worthy of this too, not bad for a Targher.

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