THE tag of senior professional sits a little uneasily with our captain Sean Hessey. He might wear the armband and be preparing to start married life at the age of 30, but he is still a kid at heart.

The family-like surroundings of Macc have certainly given Hessey a new lease of life, since his fall-out with Bobby Williamson and release from Chester City just over a year ago. So it is little wonder that Hessey wants to carry on playing for as long as he possibly can. In a world where he openly admits you "never really have to grow up."

"That is what football is like. Being around your mates with all the banter is fantastic. You always feel like a kid and I openly admit to being immature!"

His role of captain and mentor is one that he takes seriously, only if he can prevent one or two kids from making the same mistakes he did as a youngster, when he was climbing up the professional ranks.

Although Flynny and John Rooney might be needing ear-defenders before the end of the season, after the bombardment of advice they get from Hessey and co-driver Paul Morgan on the way into training.

"I enjoy the responsibility of being captain, the extra responsibility of looking after the kids, but the funny thing is, I look at myself and I think I am still young and I am 30 now," he said.

"That is not really old, but I remember when I was 19, looking at players who were 30 and thinking they were about to draw their pension!

"As you get older you look after yourself more. When I was 18, I just used to go out and play. Never even warmed up, just smashed a few balls around before the game. Now I do all the right things because I want to play forever.

"It frustrates me when I see people making the same mistakes I did. The good thing is they listen. When I was there age, it used to go in one ear and out the other. "

They have to listen to the moans too, from a self-confessed bad loser and hard person to be around if Hessey finds himself on the wrong end of a scoreline on a Saturday afternoon.

"I do moan a lot and I feel sorry for them really. It's not that I am a miserable person, but I hate losing," he adds. "This season has not gone as well as we would have hoped. I started it, hoping that we would have a run at the play-offs, but we had a bad start and that really handicapped us," he said. "Also we have been inconsistent and every time we think things are getting into a good run, we seem to have a few bad results."

Hessey is willing to acknowledge that part of the problem and ironically also the solution within, is the large amount of youngsters who have operated in the side this season.

He has tried to pass on his experience, but that is a valuable commodity that only comes with regular games.

"I know we have a lot of young lads in the team and they have done great. There are some of them that can go far in the game and have a good career," he adds. "People like Izaak, Flynny and we have not even seen John Rooney have a consistent run in the side yet, but they have all got a great chance.

"With youth, comes inexperience and in all walks of life, experience is invaluable. That is the one thing that we cannot teach them. We have just got to accept that we have what we have here at Macclesfield and we have to all work together and make sure we make the most of that.

"It's important that we try to teach them and help them grow up as players and people. That is something that I enjoy. I like that responsibility."

"Saturday's result was just what we needed and shows what we are capable of when we get it right. We can take a lot of confidence from the game and use it over the next few months. In many ways we need to treat the remaining games as a mini season. That's our challenge and one we're all looking forward to."