The Silkmen secured a huge victory in our promotion push against play-off rivals Darlington on Tuesday night at Blackwell Meadows.
John Rooney made three changes to the side that picked up a valuable point away at Scarborough Athletic on Saturday afternoon with Luke Duffy, Luis Lacey and James Edmondson returning to the starting XI in place of Carlos Dos Santos, Kacper Pasiek and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson.
It was a hectic start to the evening with chances at both ends early on with focal points James Gale and Jack Maskell exchanging opportunities as their team’s respective target men, though weren’t able to break the deadlock inside the first five minutes.
The first clear cut opening to make a change to the scoreline came when Luke Matheson was floored inside the area, resulting in referee Kavan Hurns rightly pointing to the spot. Luke Duffy stepped up from twelve yards, though saw his spot-kick well saved by Darlington goalkeeper Rory Watson.
Gale set the tone for the rest of the night when he continued to trouble the Darlington defence with the Silkmen reluctant to let up in their search for an opener, most prominently appealing for a second penalty in quick succession, though not interesting Hurns on this occasion.
Rogan Ravenhill was called in to action on the fifteen minute mark to tip Cedric Main’s looping effort on to his crossbar, following a heavy deflection.
Elliot Osborne and Sam Heathcote were similarly on hand to combine and prevent Main from swinging the game in the home side’s favour, with Osborne blocking his initial effort before Heathcote cleared the resulting corner off the line.
Darlington were forced in to the first change of the game just before the half hour mark, as Ellis Stanton was unable to continue and replaced by Kallum Griffiths.
Josh Kay was next to step forward for the Silkmen in a bid to find a breakthrough, though slid the first of his two efforts wide at the back post from a deep Luke Matheson cross before stinging the palms of Watson less than two minutes later.
It was Macc’s main and most direct goal threat that made the difference not long before the break as James Gale fired a low drive beyond Watson from distance to give Macc the lead on 38 minutes.
Seven minutes were added at the end of the half before the Silkmen went in to the break a goal to the good.
Luis Lacey was the first to enter the book for Macc as he was penalised by Hurns for a trip on the byline.
Darlington responded to Macc’s strong finish to the first half with an equally as dangerous beginning to the second, as Dawson stepped in to head back to Ravenhill from close range before Jack Maskell matched his opposite man Gale’s impact in front of goal as he was first to meet a cross from the right wing, which he was able to poke home at the near post to draw level ten minutes after the restart.
Macc’s loss of lead only lasted for less than 150 seconds as James Gale latched on to Sam Heathcote’s speculative, deflected effort and lashed home on the turn from the edge of the area to restore our goal advantage with just over half an hour to play.
John Rooney made his first change of the night on 62 minutes as Luke Duffy made way for Isaac Buckley-Ricketts in the wide position to provide fresh legs to get up and down the line for the closing stages.
D’Mani Mellor looked to then capitalise on a mix-up at the back for the Quakers, forcing a sliced clearance from Watson which fell straight to Edmondson, who attempted to lob the ‘keeper, but managed to recover well and spare his blushes.
A second Silkmen change was made with twenty minutes to play as Cameron Borthwick-Jackson replaced the carded Luis Lacey.
Mellor continued to threaten after the momentary stoppage, this time letting fly on the half-volley which was well held by Watson, before Darlington substitute Aidan Rutledge tried his luck to beat Ravenhill from distance but his speculative effort looped high and wide of the mark.
Gale then came close to wrapping up the evening and his hat-trick with eight minutes to play, firing just wide of Watson’s far post with the Silkmen eager to put the result beyond all doubt.
Two more changes ensued either side of a goalmouth scramble which the Silkmen survived despite late pressure from Darlington. Carlos Dos Santos and Lewis Fensome were introduced for Josh Kay and Luke Matheson in the final few minutes of regulation time.
A minimum of six minutes were added at the conclusion of the standard 90 minutes, in which Macc were able to withstand further pressure from the home side and ran the clock down to see out a valuable victory in our bid for promotion, now sitting pretty in 6th in the Enterprise National League North.
Attendance: 1,404 (35)
MOTM: James Gale
