In the first of a series of regular features celebrating our illustrious history, we take you back to 3rd June 1995, when, following a Football League AGM, Macclesfield Town’s application to join the Third Division was formally rejected.
The 1994/95 season proved to be an emotional rollercoaster on numerous levels and in many respects, even the most ardent Silkmen fan could not have predicted what was to unfold.
After finishing seventh in Sammy McIlroy’s debut season at the Moss Rose, The Silkmen looked ahead to the new campaign with a tentative amount of optimism.
A 3 – 1 victory against Welling United on the opening day set the scene for what would become one of the most historic and, indeed, controversial campaigns in our history.
Merely flirting with top spot for the first couple of months of the season, McIlroy’s side then faced Farnborough Town at the Moss Rose at the start of October.
On paper, our 4 – 1 victory may seem to be nothing more than routine three points.
However, the win signalled the start of a record-breaking run which would see The Silkmen win ten consecutive league games and open up a significant gap at the top of the Vauxhall Conference.
The tenth successive victory came on a dismal day against old rivals Woking.
Steve Payne scored the first, with Ian Monk completing a phenomenal solo strike to complete the scoring.
Despite the inclement weather conditions that day, the vast majority of the 2186 attendees went home dreaming of how our story could play out.
And yet, a problem would emerge that would quell all our dreams – albeit temporarily.
With the club diligently working on a brand new cantilever stand to cover the Star Lane End (at a cost of £85,000), contractors came across a culvert, and this set the completion date back around three months.
This meant that the Moss Rose did not receive the appropriate ground grading that the Football League stipulated had to be in place by 31st December.
So despite Sammy’s side performing miracles on the pitch, it appeared that our biggest opponent game in the form of the Football League.
Sammy McIlroy: Led The Silkmen to our first-ever Vauxhall Conference title back in 1995.
However, there was to be a further and equally bizarre twist in the tale.
Ahead of the 31st December deadline, Chairman Arthur Jones asked the Football League if we could approach Chester City with a view to a short-term ground-sharing agreement.
Bearing in mind that Chester had used the Moss Rose on 53 occasions between 1990 and 1992, it was thought that this would be a fairly straightforward way to navigate around the situation.
In their wisdom, the Football League rejected this – stating that Chester was too far outside the Macclesfield conurbation for it to be considered.
Sir Nicholas Winterton (MP for Macclesfield) took the matter to Westminster, where the Sports Minister Ian Sproat wrote directly to the Football League asking them to consider Macclesfield Town’s case.
Despite this, the club, politicians and the national media were met with a wall of silence as the Football League seemed to be protecting their membership – as they had done twelve months before by denying Kidderminster Harriers promotion.
As it would transpire, The Silkmen would win the Vauxhall Conference by five points – with the historic trophy being presented to Neil Howarth on 6th May 1995.
Despite the unwavering narrative at the time, some Silkmen fans still believed that the Football League would ultimately accept our application to join the Third Division at their AGM.
On 3rd June 1995, our application was formally and finally rejected.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and in some ways, it would have been wonderful to have a crystal ball on that day thirty-one years ago.
But in other ways, it would have taken away some of the magic that ensued over the next few years.
Far from quelling the club’s ambitions, the events of 3rd June 1995 only fuelled our fire, and this was to take us to places beyond our wildest dreams – as we will look back on in future instalments.
