Despite enjoying the majority of possession and chances, a young looking Silkmen XI had to be content with a 3-3 draw at the recently opened Eagle Valley, home to North Counties East League side Arnold Town tonight.
The home side included former Silkmen Martin Carrurthers in their starting XI whilst Macc went into the game with four members of the first team squad. Matty Flynn at centre half, Matt Lowe at left full back, Kristian Dennis up front and finally Lee Bell who was wearing the captain's armband.
In front of a crowd of around 150, it was the hosts who took the league on 23 minutes. A through-ball was played to Tian Walton, who appeared to be a good two yards offside. He cut the ball back to Carruthers whose half hit shot was parried by Josh Welsby, but the ball still had enough momentum to creep over the line.
Former SIlkmen Martin Carruthers
It spurred the visitors into life and by half time they could easily have been two or three goals to the good, a combination of poor finishing and good keeping limiting the Silkmen to just one goal. That came on the stroke of half time from Kristian Dennis, the young striker finally finding the back of the net after three golden chances went begging.
First on 24 minutes he collected a lovely ball from Scott Beckett. A nice first touch was followed by a turn and shot that went narrowly wide of the far post with the keeper beaten. On 37 minutes the keeper was forced to save low when one on one with Dennis. After Matt Lowe had done well to close down Arnold's full back the loose ball was picked up by Dennis, but he shot lacked the power and the keeper was able to collect fairly easily.
On 44 minutes Dennis was again in the thick of the action, collecting a ball from strike partner Vinny Mukendi. His curled effort from out wide was again well saved. Just as he must have been thinking it was not going to be his night, Dennis was finally rewarded for his efforts. Timing his run well down the right channel, he composed himself well before surprising the keeper with a well stuck shot from a good thirty yards out. Somewhat flat footed the keeper could only watch the ball fly past him into the back of the net.
Half Time - Arnold Town 1 Macclesfield Town 1
Within two minutes of the restart the Silkmen were in front. No thirty yarder this time, but a simple tap in after a Matty Flynn free-kick caused trouble amongst the Arnold back line. With Mukendi and Dennis foraging well it was the latter who helped himself to his second from six yards out.
The lead was however shortlived. Four minutes later Arnold's full back did well to win the ball out wide but his crossed looked innocuous enough. However the ball slipped through the extended hands of Josh Welsby and Martin Carruthers was on hand to tap the ball in from two yards out.
Not to be outdone, the Silkmen went ahead again on 54 with the goal of the evening. The ball was played nicely across from right to left, eventually finding Tom France out wide. He cut inside, composed himself for the shot and let one fly from around twenty five yards. The keeper could do nothing but watch it sail over his head and inside the top corner.
In a mad ten minutes of play the scoring was complete and it was a night to forget for young keeper Welsby. In almost carbon copy fashion of Arnold's second goal, he let another cross slip through his hands, and despite his best efforts to claw the ball back, the linesman deemed it to have crossed the line for an own goal.
With both sides making several substitutions, the game understandably get a bit scrappy with the best chance falling to Vinny Mukendi.
But all in all another useful run out for the youth team players against a very competitive Arnold team, and with Lee Bell get a good hour under his belt, a good end to the club's pre-season.
Macclesfield: Wellsby, Lowe, Jukes, Flynn, Askey, France, Roberts, Bell (c), Beckett, Mukendi, Dennis
Subs: Cooke, Lane, Lonsdale, Davis, Daniels, Meachin, Moss, Thomas.
