Macclesfield Blues

“And that is the last kick of the match. One of the greatest FA Cup giant killings has happened here in the sunshine at the Moss Rose. The holders Crystal Palace have been knocked out. What a turnaround of fortunes for Crystal Palace : winners at Wembley in May, losers in Macclesfield in January.” The words of BBC Radio’s John Murray providing the epitaph to Palace’s dismal, desperate defeat by a mid-table team from National League North. As everyone now knows, the gap of 117 places in the football pyramid is the largest ever to be overcome by a lower-placed club in 155 years of the oldest competition in the football world. 

The fact that the last kick was propelled into the sky by the Silkmen’s captain Paul Dawson was apposite. Dawson had set the tone from the outset, within ten seconds of the kick-off he had put in the first of countless robust challenges, which ended up with him and Jaydee Canvot requiring treatment after an accidental clash of heads. The 19-year-old Frenchman looked dazed and confused, setting the tone for Palace’s muddled performance for the remainder of the game. By contrast, after being bandaged up, Dawson was bloodied but unbowed, leading from the front exhorting his side to their famous victory. His bandaged head gave him the look of a warrior. Ironically, a teammate had to repair the dressing just before the freshly patched-up Dawson headed the opening goal. 

The difference in the attitude of the two sides was as wide as the relative standings of the clubs. The Macclesfield players bristled with energy and commitment, Palace’s team were listless and lethargic; as a result, pretty much every 50/50 challenge was won by the home side. It seemed odd that, after the crowning glory of the greatest achievement in the club’s history, there was such a lack of passion and pride from the Palace side. Although there were only three players in Saturday’s starting line-up who began the final against Manchester City – Guehi, Richards and Wharton – surely the players had the motivation to defend the trophy? Sadly, that motivation never materialised.

Oliver Glasner acknowledged that Macclesfield fully deserved their victory, no excuses were offered for such a limp display. Some might have pointed to playing on artificial turf but most of Palace’s team looked like they were playing on sheet ice rather than a 4G surface. There were some grumbles from Palace fans that every borderline decision went to the home side but that was more down to the rub of the green or the astro. Like all the Manchester City fans who I met or spoke to after the final in May, my first instinct was to congratulate the victorious team and the majority of our supporters will have been of the same ilk. 

Giles Goford, who hails from near Macclesfield and was at the game, sent me a message that the “Palace fans we saw were very gracious, classy bunch you lot.” Considering the circumstances that both clubs have travelled down, albeit at different levels, that is the very least I would expect and despite the disappointment of being dumped out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle, it was good to see the away fans applauding the Macclesfield players after the match had finished. 

Macclesfield’s rise over the last five years is one that should strike a chord with Palace supporters. After being expelled from the National League in 2020, Macclesfield Town went into receivership and the club was resurrected by Rob Smethurst as Macclesfield FC. Like most phoenix clubs, the emphasis has very much been on serving the local community, with the facilities such as the 4G pitch, being open to use by locals. With three promotions in the space of four years under former boss Robbie Savage, the club has clearly been on the up, climbing the league ladder from the base of the North West Counties League, the ninth tier of English league football.

Palace fans are no strangers to the perils of financial implosion, having suffered two administrations in the space of just over a decade. The club were looking over the precipice of bankruptcy and potential dissolution as recently as 2010 before being rescued by Steve Parish and the CPFC 2010 consortium. The first steps to becoming a Premier League club of more than a dozen years standing, gilded by that FA Cup final win in 2025, were taken when the very existence of the club hung in the balance. So there may currently be 117 places between the two clubs, but their respective renaissances should offer hope to any club that is facing financial difficulties. However bleak prospects are, clubs can survive and thrive. 

It is important to keep a perspective on even the most bitter disappointments. Nobody could have foreseen how this season’s FA Cup 3rd round would provide such a dramatic downfall. During the afterglow of the 2025 FA Cup Final, which came in the middle of an unprecedented nineteen-match unbeaten run, I was conscious of enjoying that moment in the sun as it would not last and that came to pass on Saturday. 

Everyone involved with Macclesfield should savour their own moment in the sun, particularly after the travails of the last few years. Maybe in a similar way to Palace fan Lewis Carey, who now has a permanent reminder of the FA Cup final win, having had all of John Murray’s 124 words post-match commentary tattooed on his leg. The queue for the Artmageddon Tattoo Suite in Church street might rival those that snaked around the ground when thousands were buying tickets for Saturday’s 3rd round tie.

In a piece about last season’s FA Cup final – https://bit.ly/3Si2BWF – I mentioned the people who were not there and especially my brother Stephen who died over twenty years ago. The same thought struck me after the Macclesfield game in light of the tragic death of 21-year-old player Ethan McLeod last month on his way back from a match. The manager John Rooney rightly dedicated the win to him. 

I will be following Macclesfield’s progress in the FA Cup with interest and wish them all the best for their future. Later today I will be taking my newly-born granddaughter to register her birth. Named after the great uncle she never met, the cycle of life and death, joy and despair continues with the arrival of Stevie Foster.   

Photos courtesy of Giles Goford