Saga of the Silkmen: calm before the storm in Macclesfield as Brentford await

Along the passenger bridge at Macclesfield railway station, a frieze celebrates the town’s history. Towards the far platform it reads “1874, Macclesfield Town established”. The next entry is “1979, Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures released”. Local humour has it that for 105 years nothing happened in Macclesfield. “Macc’s Macc,” say those who know of a place where change is for ever slow, many Maxonians happy enough with that.

The town, in the east of Cheshire, a gateway to England’s north-west, is a classic northern mill town, though silk was the product not cotton. It once would have been described as a bustling market town until falling victim to the nationwide death of the high street, its Marks & Spencer branch boarded up in disuse and footfall low. That said, the outdoor Treacle Market, selling artisan foods and trinkets, held on the last Sunday of each month, claims to be the region’s “biggest monthly event”.

As the railway bridge suggests, football cleaves to the town’s heart. Macclesfield FC knocking out the holders, Crystal Palace, in the FA Cup’s greatest shock has shone welcome light on Macc’s football heritage. Before the Silkmen attempt a repeat performance against Brentford on Monday, though, strolling through the town’s cobbles and pedestrianised zones finds scant mention of such seismic success. In days gone by, local newspaper billboards might have reflected the excitement but the Macclesfield Express, produced in Manchester, confines any hype to its website and its slimline weekly edition.

“We are the champions,” says a banner outside the Old Millstone pub opposite the station, though the badge is that of the club that died in October 2020. It celebrates Macclesfield Town’s 2017-18 National League title and is a reminder of a success that precipitated grave consequences. That promotion to the Football League, the absentee owner Amar Alkadhi spent up, economies of scale increased, quickened the death spiral of the old club.

Modernity need not necessarily be bad news. The reformed club that now play in the sixth tier at Moss Rose, Macclesfield FC’s Leasing.com Stadium in new money, is a daily hub of activity, gym facilities and a 4G pitch attracting townsfolk and beyond to the site that became bedraggled in the dog days. It took disaster, the bereavement of a 2020-21 season without football, for those beyond the diehards in the town to wake up to the civic asset the club had been and could be again.

On a good day, Moss Rose’s roars and groans were within earshot of our home on the climb into the Peak District. The Silkmen have had to compete hard for attention in a football hotbed. It was a wonderful part of the world to gain a football education. Manchester United and Manchester City are a short drive or train journey away. Within Macclesfield, certain pubs will be City dominated, others full of United fans. Halfway to Manchester, Stockport County, enjoying their 1990s purple patch, were an attractive prospect on Friday nights.

Games at Moss Rose provided some indelible memories. On 15 April 1989, as Macc beat Dartford 4-1 in an FA Trophy semi-final, news from Sheffield arrived via transistor radios. “Fifty dead at Hillsborough” are words never forgotten. A sun-drenched spring day of celebration soon turned to horror before a sombre evening realising the true death toll was yet worse. Macc lost the final, my first trip to Wembley, to Telford United, but the players and their charismatic manager, Peter Wragg, were given an open-top bus parade into the town square that now hosts the Treacle Market and a host of chain coffee outlets.

During 1998-1999, for one season only, Macclesfield played in what is now League One, the third tier, after a long journey. A club promoted to the Conference from the Northern Premier in 1987 were within a whisker of relegation in 1993. Taking an early driving lesson, I heard the goal that kept Macc in the Conference, from the eternal club legend John Askey, being scored against Witton Albion as I practised reverse parking on the nearby industrial estate.

A home town housing a member of the Football League was a source of immense pride. Sammy McIlroy, the last of the Busby Babes, led the Silkmen to the promised land though not without disappointment and tragedy en route. Macc were Conference champions in 1995 but were denied promotion because their ground did not meet the league’s specifications. In September 1996, the chair and benefactor, Arthur Jones, took his own life, leaving the club facing a high-court writ and extinction. The brilliant work of the current co-owner Rob Smethurst et al in establishing Macclesfield FC since 2020 is not the first time the club required rescue.

Until Crystal Palace, the most famous match at Moss Rose had been Manchester City’s Second Division visit in September 1998, won only by a late Shaun Goater goal. City’s historic nadir proved as high as the Silkmen climbed up the Football League ladder.

Macc usually struggled in League Two until relegation in 2011-12. Being adjacent to the Manchester giants brought through a long list of United and City alumni. After McIlroy came managers in Peter Davenport, Brian Horton, Paul Ince and Ian Brightwell assisted by Asa Hartford. At one time, the former City player Paul Lake, whose brother Mike played in that 1989 team at Wembley, was the club physio. “Lakey, Lakey, sort ’im out” came the chant whenever he came on with his magic sponge.

The saga of the Silkmen would also continue that sad seam of tragedy. Keith Alexander, the club’s second Black manager after Ince, was a popular figure and his sudden death in March 2010 was followed by the midfielder Richard Butcher’s fatal heart problem in January 2011.

For someone long resident in London, Macc’s matches at Leyton Orient, Dagenham, Barnet, West Ham twice in the League Cup, even Dulwich Hamlet in the FA Cup, supplied tastes of home. Away fans’ wry Maxonian humour warmed the cockles, as did an admiration for those who boarded a coach following the Silkmen all over the country. Macc’s finances meant most players were on one-year contracts, meaning watching almost a different set of players each season, though the essence endured.

Macc would often have the lowest average home attendance in the Football League, admission to the Moss Rose cheap, with sparse facilities to reflect that. The current club, food and drink concessions readily accessible, good quality in footy scran terms, is a world away. Much of the previous charm endures, though, including the PA announcer, Andy Worth, a man with a voice so loud he barely requires amplification.

Back in 1989 there was a grass bank behind one of the goals. The small, seated main stand is all that remains of the old Moss Rose. Smethurst has talked of his surprise at the backing he has received from Macclesfield’s public but he and his cohorts have supplied a stadium and club to generate that response.

What followed the victory over Palace was a swell of pride. From 200 miles away, emotion overflowed for a home town unassuming yet assured in its identity, content in being quiet, unrushed yet now asserting itself to the world. More on Monday, please.

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