Macclesfield Town F.C.
Encyclopedia : M : MA : MAC : Macclesfield Town F.C.
Macclesfield Town Football Club are an English football team. The club were formed in 1874 and are based in the small town of Macclesfield in Cheshire. Town play their home games at the 6,355 capacity Moss Rose stadium. Macclesfield made history when a Macclesfield Town player Chris Priest scored the final goal of the last millennium.
Nicknamed The Silkmen, they will contest the 2005/06 season in Coca-Cola League 2 under the management of Brian Horton.
Moss Rose was the German national side's training base at Euro 96 and they went on to win the tournament.
Macclesfield were Conference champions in 1995 but were denied promotion to the Football League because Moss Rose was not deemed to be up to Football League standards. The necessary improvements were made and the Silkmen were promoted to the league two years later.
Nervous nineties
In recent years the club has had a number of managers, including David Moss and club stalwart John Askey, but few have come close to the achievements of Macclesfield's most successful manager, Sammy McIlroy. He brought the club to its highest league position ever, having taken them to Division Two. The club were relegated within a season of Division Two football, but there is optimism amongst fans that one day soon the club will return.
McIlroy, who took charge at the start of the 1993-94 season guided the club to the GM Vauxhall Conference Championship in his second season as manager.However. the club was denied a place in the Football League because their stadium did not meet league requirements of having a 6,000 total capacity including at least 1,000 seats. By the time Macclesfield won the Conference title two seasons later in 1996-97, their stadium had been upgraded and they were promoted to Division Three of the Football League in place of Hereford United.
In 1997-98, Macclesfield finished runners-up in Division Three and were promoted for the second season running, this time to Division Two. But the club failed to sustain in Division Two and slipped down again the following season. McIlroy soon left for the job of Northern Ireland national coach (although he had since quit the job to take charge at Stockport County) and over the next five seasons, Gil Prescott, David Moss and John Askey were unsuccessful in trying to get Macclesfield anywhere near the top of Division Three.
Horton era
In March 2004, Macclesfield turned to the experienced 55-year-old Brian Horton to take charge. Horton, whose previous manager's jobs were with Oxford United, Brighton and Hove Albion, Manchester City, Huddersfield Town and Port Vale, has reinvigorated Macclesfield. A finish of fifth for the 2004/05 season resulted in a playoff place, but the team were eliminated in the semi-finals by Lincoln City.
However, 2005/06 proved disappointing with the team failing to build on the previous season's progress, finishing an undistinguished 17th.
Famous connections
Famous fans include Stephen Morris#redirect of the band New Order and also FiveLive commentator Alan Green#redirect .
Outstanding players are George Abbey (In February 2004 played for Nigeria in the African Nations Cup), Jon Parkin (On January 12th 2006 big Jon Parkin signed for Championship side Hull City for an undisclosed fee), and Efe Sodje.
History
- 1890-91 - Founder member of The Combination; runners-up
- 1895-96 - The Combination runner-up (lost on goal average)
1908-09 - Manchester League Champions (Source: Manchester Guardian Apr 24th 1909)
1910-11 - Manchester League Champions (Source: Macclesfield Courier Apr 27th 1911)
- 1911-12 - Joined Lancashire Combination Division Two
- 1913-14 - Lancashire Combination Division Two runner-up, promoted to Division One
- 1915 - Left Lancashire Combination
- 1919-20 - Founder member of Cheshire County League
- 1931-32 - Cheshire County League Champions
- 1932-33 - Cheshire County League Champions (2nd time)
- 1933-34 - Cheshire County League runner-up
- 1945-46 - Did not play
- 1946-47 - Restarted playing in Cheshire County League
- 1952-53 - Cheshire County League Champions (3rd time)
- 1960-61 - Cheshire County League Champions (4th time)
- 1961-62 - Cheshire County League runner-up
- 1963-64 - Cheshire County League Champions (5th time)
- 1964-65 - Cheshire County League runner-up
- 1967-68 - Cheshire County League Champions (6th time)
- 1968-69 - Founder members of Northern Premier League; Champions
- 1969-70 - Northern Premier League Champions (2nd time, on goal average). Inaugural F.A. Trophy Winners
- 1973-74 - F.A. Trophy semi-finalists
- 1984-85 - Northern Premier League runner-up
- 1986-87 - Northern Premier League Champions (3rd time); NPL Challenge Cup Winners
- 1987-88 - Joined Conference
- 1988-89 - F.A. Trophy runner-up
- 1991-92 - F.A. Trophy semi-finalists
- 1994-95 - Conference Champions
- 1995-96 - F.A. Trophy Winners (2nd time)
- 1996-97 - Conference Champions (2nd time); promoted to Football League Division Three
- 1997-98 - Football League Division Three runner-up; promoted to Division Two
- 1999 - Relegated to Division Three
Source: [Football Club History Database]
Source: "Saga of the Silkmen - A History of Macclesfield Town FC"(Carnegie Publishing 2001)
Honours
- Football League Third Division runners-up 1998
- FA Trophy winners 1970, 1996
- Football Conference champions 1995, 1997
- Northern Premier League champions 1969, 1970, 1987; runners up 1985
- Cheshire League champions 1932, 1933, 1953, 1961, 1964, 1968; runners up 1934, 1962, 1965
Current squad
''As of June 27, 2006Nationality given from place of birth
External links
- [Macclesfield Town Official Website]
- [Macclesfield Town Fansite]
- [The Save Our Silkmen Pixsale website]
- [The Silkmen Supporters Trust website]
- [Scandinavian Silkmen]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.