The Silkmen return to the Moss Rose this weekend hoping to restore the good form that only saw the club beaten twice on their own turf for the first five months of the season.
Two straight home defeats to Torquay and Cheltenham have seen the club slipping down the home form table as they head in to a home match with Plymouth Argyle.
Whilst the Silkmen were having an enforced break after the postponement of the trip to Northampton, Argyle were taking on promotion hunting Southend United at home.
Anyone watching the scores might have thought that Argyle were falling to another defeat as the match went last the 80 minute mark with United winning 2-0. But Argyle showed some fighting spirit and pulled back to 2-2 with two late goals to earn a vital point in the battle against the drop.
It is not the first time the club have pulled back from the brink after coming through administration that saw a 10 point deduction last season and hung over into this campaign.
The financial insecurity saw them off to a poor start - after starting with a creditable draw at Shrewsbury they lost their next eight matches before picking up a first win of the campaign - against the Silkmen.
The form has picked up over the past couple of months and the club were able to strengthen in January with the signings of Nick Chadwick, Darren Purse and Paul Wootton alongside the loan captures of Juvhel Tsoumou from Preston and Scottish U21 international Alex McDonald from Burnley - both of whom have been regulars in the Championship this season and made heir debuts in the draw with Southend.
Argyle's early season form had seen them rooted to the foot of the table, but the recent upturn - whilst not yet enough to lift them out of the bottom two - has seen the climb above Northampton and out of 24th spot.
The Silkmen's recent form doesn't need a reminder. The exertions of the FA Cup, an unprecedented injury list and a tough run of games have combined to see the club slipping the wrong way in the League Two table.
But with an extra week's break following the recharging training camp in Tenerife and the prospect of some of the injured players set to return makes this a crucial clash for the Silkmen.
Early Team News.
Reports from Tenerife were that Ben Tomlinson, George Donnelly - a former Plymouth player, Colin Daniel, and Dwayne Mattis could be on he verge of a return to action this weekend. Find out more later in the week with our regular interview with Silkmen Physio Nick Reid.
Ross Draper, Lewis Chalmers and Sam Wedgbury are all likely to miss out after a broken metatarsal and a hernia each, and Nat Brown is suspended after what would have been his third match against Northampton was postponed.
Advance tickets still available.
Advance tickets for the Silkmen's home game with Plymouth on Saturday 11th Feb are on sale now from the club office, over the phone (01625) 264686 and online at www.mtfcdirect.co.uk.
Tickets are also available from the Town hall.
And the Silkmen have extended the deadline for advance purchase to 5.00pm on the day before the match for you to save money on your trip to the Moss Rose.
For full details of how to get hold of advance tickets, clickHERE
But don't worry if you miss the deadline.
Tickets will also be on sale (at full price) from the club's ticket office windows before the match, on the day.
These windows will remain open past kick off so even latecomers will have no problems.
