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The final bit of news as we hit the new year is that the board has told me my job is "very secure". This is mainly because of the performance in the league as I have turned around the season which looked doomed before my arrival.
Other reasons for this are down to the handling of the wage budgets and the squad as we have built a very strong harmonious group.
They had said that they don't deem the style of football we are playing to be possession football however I disagree as we have been in control of most games often having close to 60% possession in a fixture.
They also offered me the chance to change our expectations and aims for the season as they believed we could challenge for the play-off's but after a strong push to where we are now I didn't want to ruin it by piling further expectations on in the league.
Game 31: Grimsby (VC)
So the first game of the new year see's us face Grimsby for the second time in as many weeks. A big game for us once again as we look to pull away from the bottom 4 and the relegation battle and 3 points will see us hit the magical 40.
John-Lewis remains to be their top scorer with 10 goals as he leads an attack which is tied for 4th best in the league. However it is their defence, now ranked 23rd in the division which has seen the Mariners drop to 20th in the league.
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Once again back to our strongest line up after some missing players in our previous fixture. We should be able to get the win today with this side out.
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A disappointing result but the performance was still strong. Their first goal was offside, I rewatched it several times and every time I said it was offside. It was a simple ball over the top to Watson but he was about 2/3 feet further forward than any player on the pitch.
We dominated the game but we constantly let ourselves down with weak shots which were easy to save. Dominating possession has it's negatives though as the hosts hit us on the counter for their second and despite pulling one goal back through Fairhurst all the attacking in the world couldn't get us the point.
This sees us drop to 14th again as we fail to hit the 40 point mark. Although we are still 11 points from the play-off's and 13 points from relegation so the loss isn't all bad. This is just my 3rd loss in charge of Macclesfield and the first loss in 9 games in all competitions for us so hopefully we can bounce back.
Game 32: Woking (VC)
Another team who are good going forward but so poor at the back that it costs them points and sees them sat in 18th place. Woking have 2 goal scorers with at least 8 goals including leading scorer Rendell who has 11 to his name so far this season. With just 1 win in 5 including 3 losses on the bounce Woking need to pick up a win soon as they slide closer to relegation.
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Due to fitness problems we have had to rotate the team a bit which sees another start for Barnes-Homer.
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Despite the result we were dreadful and saved by Barnes-Homer who scored a hat-trick. The first half ended with us 2-1 down and this was lucky as we were dreadful going forward and awful at the back. We could've gone in 2/3 goals down but Barnes-Homer got a chance from nowhere to get our first goal of the game.
The second half saw more attacking intent from the side as we pushed forward with a purpose and this showed as Barnes-Homer got his second and third of the game to give us a 3-2 lead. He then won a penalty in the final ten minutes to give us another goal as Turnbull converted.
The win sees us move to the 40 point mark and just 8 off of the top 5 whilst we build a larger gap from the relegation zone.
BREAKING NEWS!
Macclesfield have today released details on their financial situation and have stated that they are in a bad state which is down to previous loans and spendings.
The club have confirmed that they have had to lower the wage budget for the club by £1000 a week just days after Wrack had handed out a range of new contracts.
Whilst there has been no talk around the club of how this has affected the goings on at the club it is highly believed that the club are considering offering out Darren Wrack in order to offload his wages.
Wrack has denied this and has said he hopes to carry on in his role at the club but has said the club is struggling financially. He stated that when he arrived the club had over £50000 in the bank but due to deteriorating finances they are now close to £200000 in debt.
They cannot take out a loan at the moment due to a previous loan which they are still paying back. With the news coming in a time that the club are doing so well many will see the negatives of the current situation as they will believe that key players such as Turnbull and Taylor could leave as well as Wrack.
The club has said that whilst they aren't close to administration at this moment unless changes happen soon they will come to that within the next year.
This afternoon the club has allowed Darren Wrack to release a statement on the financial situation at the club which we found out yesterday the club are in a lot of debt. The statement read as:
We would like to confirm the current financial struggles of the club. We have continued to make losses over recent months and this has left the club in a tough spot financially. I can confirm the budgets I have to work with have been cut due to the financial situation but despite this I will continue to look to move forward with the club.
Rumours have been said that the club would look to offload key players and possibly even myself in order to try and turn the finances around a bit. However after a meeting with the board we have come to the conclusion that the best way to fix the finances is to succeed as a club.
The financial situation is bad and if the club fails to have any success it could end with administration however my aim is to finish as high as possible in the league and also go as far as we can in the FA Trophy.
We would like to thank our fans for their continued support for the club around these tough times.
Game 33: Matlock (FA Trophy Second Round)
So amongst all the tough times around the club we have to continue to perform on the pitch and push forward to give the fans something to be happy about whilst the future of the club is under question. We will have the task of beating amateur club Matlock to advance to the next round.
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We play our strongest possible side as we look to push forward and onwards to the 3rd round of the competition.
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Whilst the result doesn't seem to back this up we were fantastic on the day. The back line for us was perfect and won the game for us so once we had scored the first goal we just controlled the game and ended with almost 70% possession on the day.
With no attacking threat Matlock struggled to get past us so on the day 1 goal was enough and whilst I would have liked to score a couple more we didn't need it in the end and the forwards ended up dropping back into midfield as we just focused on keeping it at 1-0.
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Another important factor of having a cup run is the rewards for getting through each round. Although it doesn't seem much on paper £6000 to the club at the moment will be a big help and any further success in the competition will see us pull our finances back towards a positive number.
Game 34: Alfreton (VC)
Bottom of the league Alfreton today who have been poor all round this season. They have the worst attack in the league whilst owning the record of the 4th worst defence in the league. With no-one having scored more than 5 goals on the season we should have an easy job of keeping them out.
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A big injury for us came in the build up to this game with Bell being confirmed out for an unknown amount of time at the moment. We will look to carry on without him though and push for the play-off's.
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Up to 11th and just 7 points from the play-off's after this expected win. The first half should have had the game dead and buried but a disallowed goal and two shots against the post saw Alfreton with a life line heading into the break.
They took advantage of this after the break and whilst we continued to waste chances they made the most of one to make it 2-1. After that they had a sending off and in my opinion it was an unfair second yellow card but it didn't stop the bottom side from pushing forward as they continued to create chances and we were rescued on a couple of occasions from a fantastic save and a last ditch tackle.
Game 35: Havant & Waterlooville (FA Trophy 3rd Round)
The conference south side are our next opponents as we look to push through the FA Trophy to not only succeed in the competition but also to try and rescue the clubs finances a bit. They currently sit in 15th in their division so this should be an easy enough win.
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A little bit of rotation as we have a couple of injuries to cope with. Bell is ruled out for a while and will be missed in that defensive midfield role but we will hopefully do well without.
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It turned out to be a bit of a boring game as both sides just cancelled eachother out. We were allowed to play the style of football we wanted but the hosts stood firm at the back and saw 3 defensive midfields help to cut out any threat we posed.
It will go to a replay and hopefully being the home side will give us the advantage and we will pick them apart the second time around. We didn't play badly but neither did Havant and all credit goes to the hosts.
Game 36: Havant & Waterlooville (FA Trophy 3rd Round Replay)
So we come into the replay knowing a win will set us up with a tougher tie away to Barnet in the 4th round. We will look to play the same game again today but push their back line more using our home advantage.
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Only the one at the back and a rotated bench as well look to just push the visitors today and pick up the win after a even first tie between the two of us.
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The home advantage definitely made the difference in today's replay. We dominated from start to finish and although the visitors put up a fight they couldn't create the chances to compete with us.
We went 1-0 up through Fairhurst who was played through by Lewis before Turnbull headed home from a free kick just outside the box to make it 2-0 before half time.
The second half saw us continue to threaten whilst Havant had their only shot on target just after the break. Whitaker buried the game in the final 10 minutes as he managed to hit the post with a free kick which somehow bounced back out to the midfielder who hit it first time to make it 3-0.
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Another cup win means another financial reward. Again this amount doesn't help to resolve the financial struggles but the £7000 we get for making the 4th round definitely helps to push the finances in the right direction.
Game 37: Altrincham (VC)
A big game for fans today as we play 7th placed Altrincham. A historical rivalry with both sets of fans wanting the win. The neutral will see the visitors as the favourites for today's game as they are one of the most creative sides in the league led by goals from Alexander who will look to add to his tally in an important fixture.
The biggest struggle of the day will be to break down the 3rd best defence in the league in order to get the win. Whilst they will look to score goal after goal in the fixture whilst keeping us out using that strong back line which has won them so many games this season.
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A strong side for the rivalry clash as we look to break them down and keep them out. Haining comes in with Bell still out and other options struggling for fitness during a busy period and we hope he can give a big performance in the defensive midfield role.
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In the first half we won a penalty after being dominated by a strong attacking side for the first 10 minutes. The bigger importance of the penalty is that they had a man sent off which gives us the advantage to control the game for the final 80 minutes. Whitaker buried the penalty to give us the 1-0 lead.
The rest of the game was under control as we controlled the ball and kept them out. They had 3 shots on target in the opening 10 minutes but failed to have another shot in the final 80 minutes. Late on we had 2 goals disallowed, both for offside and both probably fair decisions.
The win that sees us move up to 11th, 8 points from the play-off's was definitely won because of the sending off but a win is a win and we will take it, especially against rivals.
Game 38: Barnet (FA Trophy 4th Round)
A big game against a strong side. Barnet currently sit in 3rd in our league and whilst this is a cup game the confidence from the league will definitely carry over to this game for the hosts. Fantastic at the back with 4 clean sheets in their last 5 and just as good going forward it will not be an easy win but we will look to counter act their strengths.
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With Barnet expected to at least make the semi-final of the competition we can play without pressure today and with our strongest possible line up we will hope to pull of an upset to make the semi-finals.
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A fantastic move on the counter gave us the opener as Lewis was played through by Holroyd and he finished perfectly to make it 1-0. Later in the 1st half it was 2-0, once again Holroyd the provider for Lewis as a corner was sent in Holroyd flicked it back to Lewis who volleyed it into the top corner.
We shot ourselves in the foot though before the half as we played the ball around the back stupidly and when the ball was given away they quickly put it out wide to Yiadom who crossed into Gash who headed easily to pull a goal back. However minutes later a fantastic passing move started by Lewis was ended by Turnbull who just slid the ball into the bottom corner.
Whilst we didn't control the game and possession as I wanted to we did play fantastically. Gash had a couple of chances late on but headed wide twice when he should've scored but we dominated the midfield and despite having less possession we come away with a convincing win.
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We keep talking about the financial benefits of the cup run and this win sees another £8000 come into the club as we head into the semi-finals.
FA Trophy Semi-Final Draw View attachment 200316
We will play either Lincoln or Gosport in the semi-final as we look to have success in the trophy. We will be rooting for Gosport in their replay against Lincoln as we would rather play the Conference South strugglers.
The other tie sees Eastleigh hosting Weston-Super-Mare with Eastleigh technically the strongest team still in the competition as they sit a place above us in the league with just 1 extra point.
Today's hosts sit in 15th in the league and will look to return to previous form as after previously going 13 without a loss to climb back to where they are in the league they have lost 3 of their previous 4 in all competitions. Craig Reid is their key player with 12 goals with nobody else scoring more than 5 goals this season so if we can close him down we can shut their main threat down. Defensively they aren't too bad but if we can keep them out all we need is 1 goal.
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A strong side today as we look to build and push towards the play-off's. Still without Bell it will be Taylor to play in the defensive midfield role this time round.
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The first half saw absolutely no chances for either side. With both sides staying stubborn at the back neither sides attacking players could create any chances.
10 minutes into the 2nd half though our man on fire, Lewis won the ball down the wing and ran with it before hit the shot across goal into the bottom corner to make it 1-0. A big mistake from the home side who looked to be gaining momentum in the game with a couple of chances early on in the second half.
Despite Kiddy throwing everybody forward in the final 5 minutes they couldn't break us down and we managed to hold on to the 1-0 lead. The win sees us in 11th place now 7 points from the play-off's with a game in hand to play against Eastleigh who currently sit 6 points off of the top 5.
It is possible, had a career with Wimbledon where we got to the Championship before going bust and being dropped down to conference I think. Doing well so far
Game 40: Southport (VC)
A game against 18th place today and as we continue to push for the play-off's despite all odds we look to get another win. Whilst Southport aren't the most prolific in front of goal they have several players who can make chances count and they also have an okay defence. We will have to break them down and stay strong at the back in order to win this.
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Bell returns to the side for the first time in over a month and he will hopefully continue his pre-injury form. We play what many deem to be our strongest side possible with fitness improving after a busy period.
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At half time we should have been 3-0 down but thanks to Rhys Taylor we went in level. They dominated us from start to finish as we struggled to create any chances until the last couple of minutes when Turnbull had a rocket of an effort pushed wide.
Our worst performance since my arrival as Southport deserved to win 4 or 5-0. We just couldn't create any chances and defensively we looked tired despite all players being deemed 100% fit in the build up to the fixture.
We failed to clear a corner as Southport managed to poke home a goal at the 4th time of asking. They dominated the game and it was only an inspired performance from Taylor which kept them to just a 1 goal win. The loss sees us stay 11th now 7 points from the play-off places.
Currently in 8th place Welling are another team currently chasing the top 5 and they sit just 5 points out of the play-off places. With one of the strongest attacks in the league, led by Williams and Vine who have 24 goals between them, we will likely have to outscore them in a shoot out to claim all 3 points today and take advantage of an average defence.
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Barrow coming in for Taylor is the only change of the day as we look to bounce back from a disappointing loss to Southport in our previous fixture.
In such an important game for our season we were never given a chance as 4 awful refereeing decisions lost us the game. The first was to give a free kick which set their 1st goal up despite no player being within 3 steps of the supposedly "fouled" Welling striker.
Their 2nd and 3rd goals were from questionable penalty decisions. The referee claimed that all 3 fouls were committed by Pilkington, if so then surely he gets sent off?! Not even a booking!!! If the referee was that confident it was a penalty then it is at least a booking and to give away a free kick and 2 penalties and not get booked is ridiculous.
Then as we looked to be pulling the game back after Holroyd scored 1 and had 2 disallowed in the space of 5 minutes for supposed "fouls"(!!!!!!!!) the referee sent off Barrow despite Barrow being nowhere near anybody! After the game I instantly requested for the red card decision to be reviewed but the referee claimed that there was nothing he could do!
Despite the loss we remain just 7 points off the top 5 so it isn't all bad as we can continue to look to push for those top spots.
Game 42: Lincoln (FA Trophy Semi-Final First Leg)
The first of 3 fixtures against Lincoln in our next 4 games and one where we will look to gain the edge in the semi-finals of the FA Trophy.
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Obviously we play our strongest possible side in such an important fixture. You see Paulo Jorge on the bench as we have brought the youngster in on loan from Blackburn to cover for Bell who has been inconsistent since his return from injury.
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Their first was too easy as Taylor who is normally fantastic in goal made a massive mistake by dropping the ball in an open area and Waite pounced to tap home the keepers mistake. Bell then gave away a STUPID penalty to allow them to double their lead which saw the midfielder subbed off at half time.
After an inspiring half time talking to we came out and attacked and won a corner. The corner was defended awfully and the Lincoln keeper couldn't find the ball as it rolled to Pilkington who buried it with a passionate tap in. Awful defending though gifted them a 3rd which would put us massively on the backfoot in the second leg.
Game 43: Braintree (VC)
This was an important game today. I didn't care who our opponents were or where they are in the league it is a must win as we look to end a 3 game slide heading in to the 2nd leg of the FA Trophy semi's.
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A couple of changes as Paulo Jorge comes in at DM and Bell shifts in to the middle. It means Whitaker loses his place completely in the squad due to a mix of poor form and questionable fitness.
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A fantastic passing move saw us go 1-0 up with Fairhurst scoring in the end curling a shot into the top left corner 16 minutes in. With 4 minutes left before the break Bell made no mistake from a free kick as he just rocketed it into the net, the power on the shot left the Braintree keeper with no chance of saving it as we went 2-0 up.
In the second half we made 3 changes looking ahead to the second FA Trophy leg and the 3 players linked to set up Lewis to make it 3-0. Lewis then made it 4 as a Barrow free kick somehow made its way to the far post for Lewis to tap home.
We stay in 11th with the win but move to just 6 points off of the top 5 as we chase the play-off places. But more importantly we dominated the game and built confidence as we look to defy the odds and make the FA Trophy final by overturning a 3-1 scoreline against Lincoln.
Game 44: Lincoln (FA Trophy Semi-Final 2nd Leg)
One simple goal today... overturn the deficit from the first leg to make it to the final.
It won't be easy though as in 2 games against Lincoln so far this season we have lost twice, we will need to pick up our first win today.
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In a game we need goals we play our highest scoring side in the front 5 with Whitaker being the lowest scorer of the 5 on 7 goals whilst the other 4 have double digit goals to their names. Bell drops to the bench to be a weapon coming off the bench in the second half.
We had pulled it back to 4-4 on aggregate and looked to be ready to take the lead but the referee gave them a stupid penalty! Not only did he not know what he was giving it for as he booked a striker claiming he had given away the penalty but it was also outside the box!!!!!!!!!!
THEN! A minute later he failed to give us a penalty but went back to book their player for the challenge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK!
It was a fantastic effort ruined by stupid referee decisions and we should be in the final.