We Happy Few: Macclesfield Report

Grimsby Town 3 Macclesfield Town 1
11 Nov 2005, Coca Cola League 2

Not many of ‘em, not many of us - we all know that Friday night is music night. Oh, and that people are the same wherever you go, of course.

There is good and bad in every team selection, but we’ve learnt to live with splin-shint Parky. Town lined up in the 4-4-Lumpybumpy cake-1 formation as shown. Ah, but was it 4-4-lumpy-1? There was the merest hint that Jones the Lump was emerging from the Blundell Park Triangle, at least it looked like that from my angle. With Ramsden in the centre of defence and Toner the centre of midfield, everyone else is where you’d guess they’d be. Although am I guessing your guess? Hea-vvvvvvy.

Macclesfield turned up in a very nice Ipswich-like kit: sensible blue shirts and white socks. Very smart. They left any bad hair behind at the border post, taking away 50% of our footballing fun. They also brought along the traditional Town rejector (Wijnhard) and Town rejectee (Harsely),and to top off the creamcake, a failed trialist (Navarro) too. So a perfectly balanced diet: the lardy, hardy and mardy pros. Doh! I forgot about Fettis, that makes me tardy.

Dish of the Day: something about eating patterns; a little of what you fancy does you good, apparently, especially jaffa cakes. And don’t believe anything based on rat experiments. If you eat after midnight you turn into a Gremlin, which may explain Tony Crane. One of those is an urban myth, you can decide which.

Oh, look, they’ve started already.

1st half

The Macc lads kicked off towards the Pontoon with Wijnhard a lone striker. He’s a bit of a two-for-the-price-of-one deal with that bulbous chest; he casts a giant shadow but you don’t get many Nectar points when you buy him. They tipped, we tapped; Town were very deliberately playing short passes to each other...before Whittle wellied it.

After three or four minutes of joshing and jousting McDermott and Cohen fizzled down the right. The ball was flailed over to the left and Town lost possession, with Macclesfield breaking quickly, using Wijnhard as a rubber wall to bounce off. Bullock was tickled behind the sleeping Newey and he glided on into the area. About a dozen yards out, and from a narrow angle, Bullock smithered a drive towards the top left had corner. Mildenhall stood up and plucked the ball from the air like a school caretaker wearily changing yet another light bulb. It looked simple and it was simple, due to his positioning.

A couple of minutes later the Macclespeople broke away again with Harsely a fulcrum, but going for the full-fat cream option instead of the healthy eating crème fraiche. He swiped a low shot from the edge of the area straight at Mildenhall, who saved without fuss, despite the ball moogling and droogling along the ground: the Mildenhall magnet.

A pattern had been set: Town held the ball and the Maccmen broke away in numbers. Town were laborious but possession was generally retained between the penalty areas, despite being outmanned in midfield. The long ball was infrequent: it was a clear attempt by the players to avoid hoofing; it was a bit painful to watch at first, like babies beginning to walk. But at least they were trying.