It was a pleasant sunny early autumn afternoon in darkest Cheshire as these two teams who have had really good starts to the season despite being tipped to struggle took the field hoping to keep the feel-good factor going.

The Silkmen lined up in a 3-4-1-2 (ish) formation as follows;

1 Evans

6 Vassell 5 Kelleher 12 Welsh-Hayes

11 Archibald 8 Harris 14 Kirby 16 OKeefe

10 Stephens

20 Osadebe  9 Ironside

The visitors from Sussex lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation as follows

1 Morris

3 Doherty 19 Tunnicliffe 6 Dallison 18 Sessay

28 Camara 21 Bulman

30 Lubala 12 Ferguson 7 Grego-Cox

9 Palmer

First Half

The hosts were the first to show when Silkmen wide man Theo Archibald curled a speculative effort over the bar after just a minute. In truth both sides were finding it difficult to keep hold of the ball in the early stages with meaty challenges & misplaced passes a plenty but in form Crawley man Bez Lubala attempted to change that on 11 minutes when he worked himself space in the area but his low effort was saved comfortably by Evans in the Macc goal.

The hosts were trying to find their widemen Archibald & O’keefe whenever possible & when O’Keefe won a corner on 21 minutes it led to the game’s opening goal. A short corner routine was played in by Osadebe, Crawley’s Ferguson made a hash of his attempted clearance & the ball landed at the feet of Macc defender Vassell who lashed the ball home from close range to give his side the lead. After this Crawley tried to respond & had much the better of possession but were finding Macc’s defence in a uncompromising mood, the best they could come up with was a 41st minute shot by danger man Lubala again but his shot took a deflection & Evans saved easily.

HALF TIME: MACC 1 CRAWLEY 0

Crawley head coach Cioffi must have said some harsh words at half time & after replacing the disappointing Ferguson with Mason Bloomfield at the break they started the second half with much more vigour & had the hosts camped in & around their own penalty area for the first ten minutes or so but the Macc defence was coping admirably. Then out of nothing on 57 minutes the hosts broke quickly & almost doubled their lead when a goal bound curler by Stephens was expertly turned round the post by keeper Morris.

The visitors kept up the pressure in their pursuit of an equaliser & it duly arrived in the 73rd minute with Lubala’s 6th goal of an increasingly productive season. Macc CB Kelleher handled around 30 yards from goal & Crawley’s number 30 Lubala curled a delicious free kick over the wall & into the corner to give his side a deserved equaliser. Crawley could smell a winner after this & went all out for the three points & after a goal saving tackle by MOM Vassell thwarted Olly Palmer when the striker was about to pounce & the Sussex side came even closer on 81 minutes after Lubala’s shot was parried by Evans into Palmer’s path but the big front man stumbled as he was about to shoot & a golden chance to take the points was missed. The hosts had taken a second half battering but to their credit took the game back to the visitors in the game’s final throws with first Archibald having an effort well saved by Morris & striker Ironside only just failing to reach a low cross with the keeper beaten.

FULL TIME: MACC 1 CRAWLEY 1

A very good entertaining game which was a good advertisement for League Two football, it’s just a shame there wasn’t more in the stadium to see it. Despite Crawley having a whopping 63% possession in my opinion a draw was a fair result. Both teams showed why they have had positive starts to the season, Lubala was a constant danger for the visitors but the home side’s defence, especially the excellent Vassell worked tremendously hard to keep the fluent Crawley attacks at bay, a thoroughly enjoyable game.

words Ian Bradley, D3D4 roving reporter