By Liam Price, photos by Jonathan White
Nantwich Town exited the FA Cup as Macclesfield secured a comfortable 2-0 victory at Moss Rose.
The two big decisions by Jon Moran were to leave out top scorer Alex Panter and defender Josh Williams, with an extra man in midfield instead.
The official number of Dabbers supporters in the away end was 260, who were loud and supportive throughout.
All of Macclesfield’s dangerous moments, in the first half at least, came down their right and the Dabbers left.
Sean Etaluku caused all sorts of problems for Perry Bircumshaw, drawing an early save from Ben Garratt as he cut inside him.
Justin Johnson was the next to chance his arm, firing over the bar from just inside the box. It was in those moments that you wondered if Williams, a left footer who has played on the left of the back 3 most of the season and has experience at full back too, could have helped Bircumshaw out more than the conventional centre backs out there.
Macclesfield were infrequently peppering the Nantwich goal but mostly they were off target. Danny Whitehead, James Edmondson and Josh Kay all guilty of being wasteful in the first period.
Nantwich didn’t have many shots in the game, but they all came from the somewhat unlikely source of Joel Connolly. The first was a curler from about 25 yards that was always a difficult effort and was well off target.
D’Mani Mellor stumbled in the box before he could get a shot away in a presentable position, before a pair of deflected efforts demonstrated the concentration of the Dabbers defence.
Captain Paul Dawson fired towards goal from a corner and forced Garratt into his best save of the tie.
The Dabbers’ best opportunity came on the counter; found over the top Connolly raced through but got his effort all wrong on the half volley. There were a few moments like that in the first period that didn’t quite come off as the balls were too far ahead of Byron Harrison, so again you were left wondering what would have happened if Panter had been on from the start to use his pace and power against that back line in those situations.
Etaluku and Whitehead forced Garratt into more saves before the break, but in all it had been a very good half for the Dabbers.
The Silkmen always had more gears to go into and they found one early in the second half in taking the lead. Kay was slid in smartly and finished superbly, a reverse finish first time across Garratt. There were glances towards the assistant for offside, but replays show Aidy Roxburgh just played him on.
Connolly curled over the bar with a free kick in what was Nantwich’s last real attempt of the game in the 52nd minute, reflecting the home dominance that the game drifted towards.
Kay was unquestionably the best player on the pitch and the Nantwich goal was like his own personal shooting gallery in the second half especially.
Roxburgh twice in the game stopped dangerous Macclesfield counter attacks, a good skill that he’s demonstrated other times this season in sniffing out the danger.
The home side did get the ball in the net in the 70th minute but it was correctly ruled out as the referee spotted Dawson doing his best Maradona impression in punching the ball in.
7 minute later they did get their second. Macc were putting together some good passing moves and this one ended with Danny Elliott rolling in a simple finish. Nantwich’s defence had been pulled apart which is exactly the intention of the kind of football the Silkmen look to play.
Edmondson was among a couple that tried to match their scoreline in the previous round but 2-0 it remained after some more Garratt goalkeeping, before players and fans warmly received each other at the end after an excellent effort from the team.
The cup journeys are over for the Dabbers, but in those games have been 3 wins and a draw in 5 games either from teams in their own division or other leagues in the 8th tier. That form will now look to be translated into the league after a long gap, starting next weekend at home to Congleton.
Teams
Macclesfield FC: Max Dearnley, Brandon Lee (Luis Lacey, 63), Lewis Fensome (Sam Heathcote, 80), Rollin Menayese, Paul Dawson (C), D’Mani Mellor (Danny Elliott, 62), Sean Etaluku, Justin Johnson (Luke Duffy, 62), Danny Whitehead (Regan Griffiths, 78), Josh Kay, James Edmondson
Subs not used: Isaac Buckley-Ricketts, Joe Nicholson
Goals: Kay (49), Elliott (77)
Nantwich Town: Ben Garratt, Aidy Roxburgh, Perry Bircumshaw (Josh Williams, 86), Kelvin Mellor (C), Ben Hockenhull, Fenton Green (Alex Panter, 63), Joe Robbins (Paddy Jarrett, 75), Byron Harrison, Joel Connolly, Byron Moore (Rui Clarke-Phillips, 86), Paddy Kennedy
Subs not used: Louis Melling, Jon Moran, Reece Vaughan
Attendance: 1,387