Moss Rose

Macclesfield Town 0-0 Newport County

22nd April 2019

In one of those odd coincidences of life, I find my two blogs colliding this week.  For not only did I travel down on Easter Monday to Macclesfield to tick Moss Rose off my '92 list, but this coming Saturday will find me attending a gig in Glasgow by the town's cultural ambassadors: The Macc Lads.

I briefly considered spending my morning in the town driving around visiting the various locations which receive a mention in the band's lyrics:  The Bear's Head and The Nag's Head pubs, Images nightclub, that sort of thing.  

But instead, wisely I feel, as I am guessing most of these places will be either have been long ago demolished, or turned into a 'Spoons, I instead drove the twenty miles west to Jodrell Bank.

This is where, in the 1950s, Bernard Lovell (later Sir) built his whopping radio telescope to aid his work into cosmic rays.  It ended up being mainly funded by the Yanks, who wished to use the thing to spy on what those pesky Reds were up to in space.  It is still in use carrying out research to this day, we learned.  Although given the structure has been designated a Grade 1 listed building by Historic England, one has to wonder just how cutting edge what goes on today really is.

Now over sixty-years old, the Lovell Telescope remains an impressive beast.

I often wonder if it is true that:
"Copernicus had those Renaissance ladies, crazy about his telescope".

A stop on The Telescope Walk.

Some of the reflective plates are showing their age, with holes rusted through.
They are in the process of all being replaced. 

One of the two access towers.  We did not get the opportunity to climb, mores the pity.

Quite how the telescope could "move without warning" was not made plain.

The Lovell Telescope, Jodrell Bank

  
The place takes a bit of a kicking on Trip Adviser - £4 just for parking! - as there is really is not a whole lot to see or do there.  There is a scale model of our solar system, which is moderately diverting, I suppose.  And, whilst the Space Pavilion houses a number of interesting and informative exhibits, I witnessed a number of families in there struggling to get their child(ren) interested in the hands-on stuff.

Fortunately, I was lucky to pitch up just as a “Telescope Walking Tour” was commencing.  This slightly grandiose title really just involved us wandering from display board to display board in the company of a personable young chap, who did his best to outline the arcane intricacies of quasars, pulsars and black holes.

I found it all really rather entertaining, as I sort of already have a (very superficial) knowledge of such phenomena.  But I could see many of the other folks' eyes glazing over, or looking on in increasing panic in case there may be questions after.

Without this talk, unless gardens are your thing, I really do feel it would be difficult to justify anything more than a 15 minute whistle-stop at the attraction.  Surely my afternoon visit to Moss Rose would ford me more than just a quarter of an hour's entertainment?  Well, perhaps it did, but not really much more, it pains me to relate.

Moss Rose - Macclesfield Town FC.

The lengthy queue at the ticket office.
Kick-off was delayed for ten minutes to let folks in.

A bit of background first, I suppose.  Macclesfield Town, currently enjoying their second spell of league football subsequent to winning the National League last year, had rather toiled all season.  From the the second league match of the campaign, right up until 9th of April this year, the club had been an ever-present fixture in one of the bottom two (i.e relegation) places in League Two.  

However, a 3-2 home win over Exeter City – aided by Yeovil Town going into free-fall – had hauled the Silkmen into the relative safety of 22nd place.  A coveted (or at least coveted by the two sides below them) position they had clung onto since.  Going into this match Macc enjoyed a two point lead over both of their rivals, (Notts County and Yeovil Town), with each side having just three matches to play.

Visitors Newport County, by contrast, had been second in September and were still well in contention for a play-off spot, and went into this match on the back of a six-match unbeaten run.  So, clearly, no end-of-season pre-holiday friendly this one.

Macclesfield Town v Newport County - April 2019

The uncovered John Askey Terrace, generally given over to away fans - unused this afternoon

Remnant from the protest march which had taken place earlier in the day against the club owners in general,
and a decision to bar all but season-ticket holders from the London Road terraces in particular.

These lads got their terrace back!

County's Matthew Dolan gets the match underway.

The Star Lane End is an unusual amalgam of seating in front of standing.

Zac Jules - Macclesfield Town

I had visited Rodney Parade on the very day in 2015 that Regan Poole signed for Manchester United.
Three and a half years later the chap is back (albeit on loan) playing for Newport.

These must either be eight very high wattage floodlight bulbs,
or Moss Rose under lights must be a bit like playing in twilight.

Sol Campbell had arrived in November 2018, with Macclesfield Town seven points adrift of safety.
That the club are still above water this late in the season has to be
judged a significant achievement by the former Arsenal and Spurs man.

It was not really a good day at the office for Macclesfield's Scott Wilson.

A visiting defender adopts an unorthodox, but effective, method of preventing Harry Smith jumping  for this one.

Perhaps not Elliott Durrell's most flattering pose.

Harry Smith - Macclesfield Town

Panorama of Moss Rose, Macclesfield Town FC.

There were two former Scottish under-19 internationalists in the Macclesfield squad, I noted: Botti Biabi and Zak Jules.  Although neither, as appears more and more to be the case these days, had actually been born in Caledonia.  Of Biabi there was no sign, but Jules lined up in central defence this afternoon, and I felt he coped well with most of what the visitors threw at him.  Also rather impressive, was full-back Miles Welch-Hayes, who rarely put a foot wrong in the home defence.

It may have been an off day for the duo, but Macclesfield's Little'n'Large strike force of Scott Wilson and Harry Smith really looked a dysfunctional pairing.  Wilson seemed unable to hold the ball for more than a few seconds before losing it, whilst Smith looked that oddest of thing: a giant of a footballer seemingly unable to win a header.  As a partnership they simply never managed to find the correct wavelength (unlike Lovell, ha ha), so consequentially nothing seemed to stick up front for any length of time for the homesters.  Wilson's 70th minute replacement Tyrone Marsh looked a far more accomplished individual.

Although perhaps that only appeared to be the case; for the lad's introduction coincided with a general opening up in play, as both sides seemed to finally realise the huge impact three points could have upon the rest of their season.

In midfield Elliot Durrell, not the most athletic looking of footballers (something the visiting support delighted in pointing out), beavered away attempting to create openings for his side.  But he was guilty of squandering the afternoon's clearest opportunity, when his touch let him down when one-on-one with visiting 'keeper Joe Day.  But for the most part Macc's midfield play was punctuated by misplaced passes, and a frustrating inability to control the ball when under pressure.  

Around the hour mark, I heard a home fan behind me resignedly comment to his friend: “It's just abysmal, Isn't it?”  I really could not argue.


Newport, despite the fact they were supposedly striving for the play-offs, hardly helped the match as a spectacle; they seemingly already having one foot on the beach.  The busy Josh Sheehan did his best, embarking upon a number of lengthy forays towards the Macc defence, but both his distribution and shooting let him down.  He was one of three players this afternoon to have an attempt on goal which ended up with the ball rolling around the streets of Macclesfield. 

Home lad Michael Rose, rather humiliatingly, saw a further effort spin off his foot and out for a throw in!

But with around 20 minutes to go things improved a touch – not because either side's passing became crisper or possession more controlled, but because, in TV pundit speak, the game became stretched.  Thus did the ball spend marginally more time at the ends of the pitch, rather than being transferred back and forth between the two sets of midfielders.  The visitors came closest to scoring during this period, with home keeper Kieran O'Hara relieved to somehow juggle Scot Bennett's attempt round a post.

Keanu Marsh-Brown - Newport County.

Time-up

End of shift for the cameraman too.

But goalless it eventually finished, and I would suggest this represented a better point for Macclesfield than for Newport, particularly so in the light of the news of rival Yeovil and Notts County also drawing their matches.  

This 2018/19 League Two relegation drama looks likely to go down to 4:50pm on the final day of the season, and I am presently wishing I had held off visiting Moss Rose until that final day.