Macclesfield 1 Vauxhall Motors 0

The motormen were left disappointed, on the road at a packed out Leasing.com Stadium, as agonising missed opportunities kept the game goalless until a late Macclesfield winner added to the frustrations.

Tempo for the ninety minutes was set from the earliest of stages as both sides had the ball in areas where they should’ve probably saw the net bulging from. There were fast tackles flying in also, moments that brought out the competitive sides of all players.

Robbie Savage was caught in the heat of it all on the sidelines, following what he believed was an officiating error after a free kick was given to the visitors on the halfway line midway through the first half. Macclesfield’s newly appointed director of football pushing down barriers to give the assistant referee verbal abuse behind his back!

Arguably the greatest chance of the game, thus far, fell to the feet of Motors forward Kieron Knapper who tried to poke the ball into the net. The keeper saved the effort in excellent fashion to keep the scoreline level going into half time.

It was a period of domination from the hosts that opened the second set set of 45 minutes, defensive solidarity from Mick McGraa’s men ensured that the keeper wasn’t rested as much a he possibly could’ve been. The ball flashing past Mikey Dixon’s post on a couple of occasions.

To switch the momentum of the game back into their favour, Motors made two late changes which very nearly paid off. Sample and Cross replacing Brandon and Knapper, either side of a brilliant chance to open the scoreline after the ball failed to be hit with any real conviction from a close range.

In truth, a draw and an away point would’ve been most probably viewed as a respectable achievement given the hosts had 2,500 supporting them. Thus, the visitors were reasonably gutted when they found themselves a goal down with few minutes left on the referee’s watch following a brilliantly executed header.