Oh look. It’s Macclesfield Town, and it’s been a while; the Silkmen are back in the neighbourhood after more than seven years in non-league exile. Or should that be purgatory? We’ll have to ask our friends down the A1 about that some time. For now, though, Macc now come to us with a boast that we can’t beat. Have we ever won the Conference thrice? No, we haven’t. And they have. But we’ve never been relegated to it, so y’know…
Not that we’ve much to gloat about at the mo. Last week’s defeat indoors to Cambridge was less the pin-up for the glorious Dino Maamria era, more an endurance test of patience. Ours ran out after about 35 minutes, by the way. And burning a hole through our very soul is the question: why did two lads who shared five goals just four days earlier start on the bench? It’s now three league matches without a goal. Please don’t be four.
Stevenage v Macclesfield Town: The Lowdown
The Referee
P2 W0 D2 L0 F3 A3; last result: Stevenage 1-1 Mansfield Town, 10/04/2018
For only the third time, Sebastian Stockbridge takes charge of a Boro’ match. Last seen in these parts a mere five months ago as Mansfield rolled into town, his presence makes this a nailed-on draw. That, or history will have to be made. It’s pretty mundane history in the grand scheme of things, to be fair. It’s not exactly man on the moon stuff. So far this term, 18 bookings and one red for Seb. And that’s very much for what it’s worth…
The Opposition
P9 W3 D3 L3 F18 A10; last result: Macclesfield Town 0-4 Stevenage, 26/03/2011
It’s a delightful work of symmetry, but our head-to-head record against the Silkmen doesn’t tell the full tale. You could call it the mostly-good-to-be-fair, the not-so-much-bad and the ugly-that-we-don’t-talk-about. You get the feeling this title won’t catch on? Yeah. Us too. As a little nugget of nostalgia, have it: the last time we played Macc at home, a late Charlton Griffin goal got us a point on Football League debut. Nice, huh?
The Form
The circles in a venn diagram of Boro’ fans and Silkmen don’t exactly overlap, so let us shine a bit of a light on our guests’ fortunes since coming back into the League fold. In truth, their first six games haven’t gone great for ’em; drawing two and losing four. Only Notts County – who we go to next – have made a worse start. And each of their three away games to date has seen them let in three goals. Let’s not be *those* guys, Boro’.
We don’t wanna have to forget another match against Macclesfield indoors. Oh right. Yeah, it didn’t happen.
• MORE ABOUT ‘EM: Macclesfield Town club profile
