Football Season Guide

Macclesfield come off another generally strong and solid season in which they flirted with the play-offs before tailing off in early spring. John Askey was overall content with what he saw from his side over the last year and will be hoping for smooth progress and consistency in the coming year. He is one of the managers that hardly overhauls his squad over the summer and indeed the Silkmen are one of the most unchanged teams compared to last year. They still lost a few big players, chiefly top scorer Kristian Dennis, midfielder Paul Turnbull and regular goalie Shwan Jalal, but the core of the squad has been maintained and changes have been mostly cosmetic. Craig Ross is expected to be the new regular goalie while Kingsley James and Oliver Norburn have been signed to bring energy and grit into the midfield. The main achilles point is certainly the attack as Jack Sampson cannot be relied there. He has struggled for goals last season and just seems not ready to carry the burden that Dennis did last season. Askey will be surely looking for another signing there but given his tight budget, the fans should not be getting their hopes up. Jack Mackreth is back with the Silkmen after a frustrating last year and the lively winger will be looking to get back to the level he had a couple of years ago One big plus for Macclesfield is that John McCombe remains on board after joining late in the spring. He is a very good centre-back at this level and there is an argument that him and George Pilkington make the best defensive partnership in the division. Macclesfield will be as usual tough to beat and hardworking in midfield but it is hard to see them mounting a serious challenge, unless a couple of new attacking players arrive.