Silkmen score seven to reach the second round of the Isuzu FA Trophy with a victory over Ashton United at the Leasing.com Stadium.
The first chance of the game fell to Ashton player Nathan Lowe who sliced over the bar. Just three minutes later Dontai Gabidon received a ball from Alex Curran and ran from inside his own half used his pace down the wing and played the ball across to Luke Duffy, but his touch fell to the path of D’Mani Mellor who stroked the ball home to give Macclesfield an early lead.
Mellor got his second goal of the game midway into the half with a close range tap in at the back post after Curran pulled the pull across the six-yard box.
Tre Pemberton added a third goal just after the half hour mark with a clever finish six yards out beating the Ashton keeper.
Two minutes later and with ten minutes left of the half Gabidon lobbed the goalkeeper from the edge of the box as he scored his first goal for the club. Just before halftime Mellor almost had his hat-trick, but his effort went over the crossbar.
Ashton pulled a goal back seven minutes into the second half through Darius Osei with a header just inside the six-yard box.
James Edmondson scored The Silkmen’s fifth goal of the game with a header from the near post. Substitute Tom Clare scored the sixth goal of the game after Curran played the ball across the Ashton defender for Clare to drive at the keeper and his effort went underneath him with eight minutes left to play.
The final goal of the match came from this season’s leading scorer Danny Elliott with a left footed strike from the edge of the box. Elliott’s goal made him the first Macclesfield FC player to score in seven consecutive games.
Next up for Macclesfield is a trip to Derbyshire as they face Matlock Town on Tuesday night.
Macclesfield: Dearnley, Pemberton, Gabidon (64) Dawson, Mendy, Edmondson, Johnson (61), Rooney (79), Mellor (67), Curran, Duffy (83)
Subs: Whitehead (79), Fensome (64), Elliott (83), Clare (67), Maieco (61)
By Luke Johnson
