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MACCLESFIELD
TOWN |
Macclesfield…they’re another team we never beat aren’t they? |
They certainly are. We’ve played the Silkmen nine times in the League and we’ve only beaten them once, back in 1998/99. It was the last game of the season and Rovers beat an already relegated Macclesfield side 4-3 on our first visit to Moss Rose. |
| I’m beginning to remember that song…”Oh, Jamie Jamie…” |
Yep, Jamie Cureton scored a hat-trick. Rovers had been 2-0 and 3-1 down in the game but scored three in the second half to win it. Incidentally, Pedro Miguel Matias, who Rovers signed for a short time earlier this season, was playing for Macc that day. |
| We were all a bit wet too weren’t we? |
| Right again. It poured down that day and the Gasheads on the open terrace got absolutely soaked, much to the amusement of those who had paid to sit in Macclesfield’s own (and now deceased) version of our Tent End (which was not an end but a side). Still, it didn’t stop a rousing chorus of “Sit down if you hate the Sh*t” and a few hundred very wet arses as those behind the goal literally practised what they preached - happy days but that was, however, our solitary success against Macclesfield home or away. We have had four draws (all at the Mem) and four losses, including 2-1 defeats on our last three visits to Moss Rose. |
| So the Tent End’s gone now? |
| Yep, Town opened the Alfred McAlpine Stand down that side in 2001. Away fans can sit in there (at £17/£12 concessions) or stand on the terrace (£13/£8). That said, last season, when we played them in a midweek game, Macc made all Rovers fans go in the seats (and pay stand prices) as they didn’t want to open the terrace – which didn’t go down too well. It’s fair to say too that, even with the new stand and almost ten years of League football under its belt, Moss Rose still has the feel of a friendly non-league ground about it. |
| They’d only just come into the League when we played them the first time hadn’t they? |
Macclesfield were promoted to the League in 1996/97 after winning the Conference for the second time in three years under manager Sammy McIlroy. On the first occasion, in 1994/95, they were denied promotion due to their ground but two years on they made up a 16-point gap on Kidderminster to win the Conference again and finally gain entry to the League. In their first season in the League, 1997/98, they were promoted again, finishing as runners up to Notts County, only to be relegated the following season. The hugely successful McIlroy left the club for Northern Ireland in 2000 and Macclesfield then went through five managers in four years before appointing Brian Horton a year ago. |
| And that looks like another good appointment… |
It certainly does. Macclesfield have been in the top ten all season and have just sneaked into third place (despite their midweek game being postponed) by virtue of having scored more goals than Swansea (with whom they have an equal goal difference) and they have more than a chance of promotion. |
| So it’s not going to be an easy game then? |
| No. Macclesfield have won eleven out of seventeen at home this season and they’ve only lost one of their last five at Moss Rose (a two-one defeat to Chester on New Year’s day), winning the other four, including a three-one defeat of Yeovil earlier this month. Their overall form is excellent too: of their last eight league games they have won six, drawn one and lost one. |
| Oh dear. Can you give me any good news? |
There is a little bit: in-form striker Matthew Tipton, who scored a hat-trick against Rochdale last weekend, has picked up five yellow cards and is suspended on Saturday. Tipton has scored eleven so far this season so his absence will be a help to Rovers although top scorer Jon Parkin, who has twenty-one to his name, will still be playing. Parkin will probably be partnered by veteran striker Mike Sheron in Tipton’s absence. |
| I’m not feeling hugely confident. Maybe you’d better tell me some other stuff I can do in Macclesfield… |
The town is best known for its silk heritage – hence the football club’s nickname – and there were once 120 mills and dye houses in Macclesfield. The first water-powered mill was seen in 1743 in Macclesfield and a decade later the town has become the country’s main centre for silk production. These days the industry is pretty much dead, mainly thanks to the proliferation of cheap silk imports in the past fifty years, with only some minor, specialist weaving and printing still going on. Despite the demise of the industry, its legacy can still be seen in Macclesfield. The town’s Silk Museums are apparently the “premier tourist attraction in Macclesfield”. There are plenty of places to visit from the Silk Museum Heritage Centre, which is on Roe Street, to the nearby Silk Museum and the Paradise Mill (both on Park Lane), where you can see twenty-six restored Jacquard handlooms. The main road from Stockport/Manchester to Macclesfield is still called “the Silk Road” too… |
| Sounds good, is there anything else to see? |
| There are still about forty mills left although most have been converted into apartments etc. There’s also the Macclesfield Canal, along which you can see the former Hovis Mill (it’s on Brook Street). Macclesfield is the home of Hovis, which dates back to 1885 when a local man developed the recipe. |
| Wow. Anything else it’s famous for? |
80’s band ‘The Macc Lads’ are one of the town’s most famous recent exports, though it’s debatable whether any tourism office would want to acknowledge them. The band were famously politically incorrect and played on offending people. Beloved by northern lads and students alike, their songs featured ‘charming’ lyrics such as: “We’re the Macc Lads we’re not f*cking queer We like pulling fit crack and supping lots of beer.” Nice |
| Hmmmm, speaking of beer…any pubs about? |
If you’re travelling by train then there are about three or four pubs in the little square opposite the station. Of these, The Waters Green Tavern is easily our favourite. It sells quite a few beers and did food last time we were there too and it has tended to be frequented by quite a few Gasheads getting off the train. We can’t remember the names of the other pubs, nor much about them save for the fact that one looked like a dive and one seemed to be a Mr Q’s type establishment. If truth be told, our well meaning attempts to do a pub crawl to the ground have, in the past, not really happened and most of our time has been spent in the Waters Green Tavern before getting a cab to the ground. However, we have managed a few on the way back down to the station and of these The Sun Inn on Mill Lane (the main road from the ground) is our favourite. It’s probably about halfway between the ground and the station and sells a number of real ales. We’ve not been there but The Railway View on Byron’s Lane (just off the main road) is about five minutes or so from the ground and we’ve heard reasonable reports of it. |
| That should do me. Anything else I should know? |
Not really, except that if a local asks you “upstairs to see his/her silkworms” you’d be best off steering clear. Oh and don’t forget the club phone number - 01625 264686 – as the forecast ain’t the greatest (again). |