Matt Harrold's third minute strike was enough to give Shrewsbury all three points in the first game of the season at the Moss Rose.

The visitors also hit the cross bar in the second period but most of the chances fell to Macclesfield who looked to have done enough to deserve an equaliser.

Gary Simpson made two changes to the side that pushed Leicester all the way on Tuesday night, with Izak Reid and Vinny Mukendi coming in for Hamza Bencherif and Colin Daniel.

Jose Veiga got his first touch early on with an excellent punch to clear the danger from a deep cross with Harrold lurking, but his next action was to pick the ball out of his net.

Matt Sadler came inside Izak Reid on the Shrews left and was able to pull the ball back for ex-Wycombe man Harrold to smash in off the post from ten yards for his second of the season.

Vinny Mukendi did well to turn his man in the box on 11 minutes but lost his footing when about to shoot and Richard Butcher following up just missed out on connecting.

The majority of the half was played in the Shrewsbury half and Macc won a string of corners, almost making one count in the 17^th minute when a deep Matt Hamshaw cross was put just past the post by a combination of Tyrone Barnett and Shaun Brisley.

Paul Bolland shot well over from the edge of the box and Barnett acrobatically volleyed over from a similar position as the home side pressed on to level.

Hamshaw, pulling the strings in midfield, had a couple of efforts on goal himself before the break, firstly seeing his right footed effort blocked by a defender and then firing wide with Emile Sinclair close to turning the ball goalwards.

In first half stoppage time Shrewsbury gave Macc a warning that they still held an attacking threat when Mark Wright was found bursting into the box on the left hand side and after beating Jose Veiga with his effort it was slid clear by Brisley.

After the interval Hamshaw's dangerous cross couldn't be finished by either Mukendi or Barnett who looked to get in each other's way and the away side looked more of a threat on the break with the pace of Lionel Ainsworth.

Shrewsbury squandered a glorious opportunity to double their advantage on 56 minutes when they had three against two and Harrold just had to play the ball through to Wright in acres of space but under-hit the pass and Reid was able to clear.

A dangerous cross from Reid was headed behind by David Raven with Sinclair about to nod in at the back post but the full-back struggled to put in many decent balls, overhitting a number of centres straight out of play.

Wright curled a fine effort just wide of the far corner after cutting inside Reid on the hour and lashed just over the other corner moments later as Shrewsbury looked to seal the victory.

Daniel O'Donnell glanced a header wide from an Ainsworth corner and at the other end Hamshaw's free kick sailed over the wall but was easily caught by keeper Chris Neal low to his right.

Shaun Brisley's terrific saving challenge denied Sean McAllister a clear chance on goal after substitute Ben Van Den Broek was tackled in the 75^th minute and despite Macc having more of the ball they couldn't break down the resolute Shrews backline, with their passing moves across the edge of the box struggling to create more than half chances.

Dutch forward Van Den Broek linked up well with Wright in the 82^nd minute to cut inside Nat Brown from the left and unleash a thunderous strike which rattled the bar and was eventually cleared.

It took Macc until the final seconds of the four minutes of added on time to come close to finding an equaliser but again they were thwarted when a long ball into the box from Sam Wedgbury found fellow substitute Hamza Bencherif who beat the keeper but his effort was cleared off the line by O'Donnell.

Andy Brinkhurst