Swindon 3 Macclesfield Town 0

Jen Kelly – The Word Nerd – brings ilovemacc her own take on the highs and lows of The Silkmen

Losing is shit. Football is full of cliches about almosts and nearlys but, when you boil it down, no-one wants to see their team lose. But that’s how it works and sometimes you have to admit that you deserved to be beaten, fair and square.

Bad day at the office…

That seems to be the takeaway from Saturday’s trip to Swindon. Beaten all over the park by a better, more organised team. Schooled on the finer points of a team performance. Made to look like the poorer side.

Before the game, we were only 3 points behind Swindon in the table. With 11 to their 14 after 7 games, the casual observer would be forgiven for thinking that both teams were fairly evenly matched. But, while Swindon have made the expected start to the season, Macc have perhaps surprised a few who would’ve assumed McMahon’s men to be down in the ditch, scrabbling for early points. After Saturday’s result, it seems normality has resumed.

Having not gone to Swindon, I was resigned to tuning in to iFollow. Matt, all on his Todd this week, was struggling to come up with more and more creative ways to say “this is all a bit shit, isn’t it” as the game progressed. Richie Wellens was quoted in The Football League Paper as saying that “…[Macc] were in good shape and hard to break down…”. The early possession split of 80/20 in favour of the home team suggested that Swindon were just casually picking their moment to open up the floodgates.

The inevitable 3 goals that came were well-worked, well-practised and well-deserved. Watching the highlights, each one is a solid team goal, with players covering gaps to anticipate rebounds and reading teammates’ movements with ease. Macc on the other hand, look slightly terrified and lost, with gaping spaces and lost marking all over the shop. 

Talk to the cat, because no-one else is listening…

At least Mr McMahon could admit when he was beaten fair and square. “It was men against boys. Swindon are a side I expect to be in the top three at the end of the season and we need to learn quickly.” Fair enough Dazza. I’m not too concerned about losing to Swindon if I’m honest. After the initial frustration, I explained to the cat that we couldn’t win everything. (Yes I talk football with my cat, what’s your point…?). What is concerning however, is the complete lack of chances we had throughout the game.

BBC Sport reckoned we had two shots on target all game. Two. It’s simply not enough. We’ve scored three goals in the last 4 games, and two of those don’t really count because they were scored by two players who can barely get a sniff at a league start. And you can’t score when you’re sitting on your arse watching the game pass by, can you?

Anyway, let’s chalk Swindon up as a learning experience and move on. Mainly because we were clearly beaten by a better team, but also because it’s too depressing to dwell on it for too long. On to Newport. Or, as our sponsors Paddy Power have dubbed it, the Unsponsored Derby. Good one…

Unsponsored sponsorship: a 2019 concept

The jury is still out about whether we signed up for the Unsponsored Shirt marketing campaign, or whether we went begging after we pissed off yet another local business. It seems that PP are slinging a load of money to ‘unsponsor’ the hoarding around the ground, as well as the MOTM award. There’s even a trophy. As an ex-marketer I’m a big fan of the PP campaign this year – it’s innovative, original and has got people talking. As a Macc fan, I just want to see us win, trophy or no trophy.

And win we really must. Things move quickly in football, and another lacklustre performance is going to start the rumblings about McMahon’s ability among the blue faithful. We’re moving from the early Freshers period, where everyone’s in the pub getting pissed, to the serious stuff, where you’re supposed to buckle down and concentrate on the term ahead. Although it seems Danny et al wanted one last hurrah before term started…

The club statement about the pre-Swindon pub crawl that was released this evening is a funny read. A pretty standard statement on the surface, on further study it’s main aim seems to be to make sure everyone knows Daryl and the players were tucked up in bed. It’s those naughty back-room staff who were at fault, and who had snuck out without Daddy Daryl knowing anything about it. The image of Steve and Danny shimmying down a drainpipe from their hotel room, giggling like small children, is one that is going to stick with me for a good while to come…

See you tomorrow night. That’s if I don’t follow Danny’s lead and just go to the pub instead…

#againstallodds https://thewordnerd.home.blog/