John Rooney’s Silkmen stormed to victory under the lights at Haig Avenue on Tuesday evening, as Macc overcame familiar management opposition in Neil Danns and Mark Duffy with a 2 – 1 victory over The Sandgrounders.
Speaking to Silkmen TV after the game, Rooney was delighted with both his team’s performance and the three points, insisting the way in which the game plan was executed was “bang on exactly what we set out to do.”
Equally impressed with the defensive display, Rooney added “the lads dug in, showing real grit and determination.”
Undeniably, this wasn’t without return fire from the home side, Rooney conceded that “after we conceded we could’ve gone under” but the lads stood firm and secured a hard-fought, but well-earned three points.
Keen to build on Tuesday’s result, the gaffer was quick to state that “we want to try and get three points in every game we play in”, no doubt boosting the confidence of the group going forward.
Not forgetting the set back of Saturday’s defeat at Oxford, Rooney also recognised that whilst the result ultimately wasn’t the one desired, “we probably actually created a lot more on Saturday than what we did here” and that “I thought it was worse than what it actually was at Oxford but when we watched it back we dominated possession, we just didn’t have that final cutting edge”.
The man at the helm felt as though yesterday’s opposition posed a different challenge as “we dug in, had a good few chances in the first half and could’ve gone three or four up”
Gracious in victory, Roons also complemented Southport’s performance adding “they played some good stuff, they’ll be a really good side this season, they’re a bright young team” but ultimately felt as though the Silkmen “showed a real maturity, especially in the way we defended”.
John and his management team made three changes to the side that lost at Oxford City on Saturday, which he put down to the requirement for rotation emphasising “we’ve got a lot of games coming up so there’ll be changes in those games as well. Everyone in that dressing room will play a massive part this year, the lads who’ve come out of the team weren’t dropped, it was just rotation and it’s worked out for us”
The Silkmen also lost Brandon Lee through injury midway through the first half, when quizzed on the gravity of the situation Rooney replied “It’s too early to tell right away, he felt his hamstring, he’s in tomorrow morning to be assessed so hopefully we should know more then”
The winning goal came courtesy of Luis Lacey, which was also his first for the Club after signing last week, and assisting the night’s first goalscorer Isaac Buckley-Ricketts on Saturday. Naturally, the Manager was delighted for him: “he (Luis) has been brilliant since he’s come in as a trialist, he’s done everything right, came on early when needed, and scored the winner”
Rooney also paid tribute to the travelling Silkmen supporters who he shared celebrations with at the final whistle re-iterating “they’re our twelfth man home and away, they travel in their numbers as they did at Oxford, to see them all is massive for us, for me and the lads in there it’s huge. We’re going to need them every single game right behind us”
Looking ahead to Saturday’s clash against Alfreton Town, Rooney was under no illusion that it would be another tough test for the Silkmen, stating “Alfreton are a tough team generally speaking and a good side at this level, they made the play-offs the year before last. Every game is going to be tough so we need to be at 100% this week and every week”
