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For 160 minutes this season, Macclesfield had been more than a match for illustrious Premier League opponents in the FA Cup. Ultimately it took an unfortunate own goal from Sam Heathcote, a PE teacher when not playing as a part-timer in the sixth tier, to put Brentford into the fifth round.
As cruel as it felt on Heathcote and Macclesfield, they can once again be proud of their performance. Crystal Palace could not break down the Cheshire team in the previous round and for 70 minutes Brentford had also struggled for a route to goal. The non-league side were even able to rouse themselves to push for a late equaliser, rather than cave in to Keith Andrews’s men.
Brentford were actually playing in a lower division than the Silkmen as recently in 1999, in the latter’s previous iteration as Macclesfield Town, but the Bees’ climb up the EFL in the 21st century to sit in a lofty seventh place in the Premier League meant John Rooney and his charges were under no illusions about the size of this task.
Rooney had spent much of the preamble insisting his players had kept their feet on the ground after the historic win over Crystal Palace, the biggest upset – by most metrics – in FA Cup history. The prospect of a lucrative trip to the London Stadium in the fifth round further upped the ante for Macclesfield – not that they needed extra motivation – and the home fans gleefully chanted “West Ham away” after the draw was revealed before kick-off.
It seemed Andrews had paid a reasonable amount of respect to his hosts, with the regulars Michael Kayode, Vitaly Janelt and the captain, Nathan Collins, all starting and a promise there would be “zero excuses” regarding Moss Rose’s 4G pitch, which caused so many problems for Palace.
There were boos from the home supporters as Brentford opted for patient possession in the early stages and the visitors began to look rattled, handing Macclesfield the ball a few times. A presentable early chance was rifled over by Luke Duffy before Paul Dawson, the Silkmen captain, drilled a similar opportunity just wide. The home side were sensing a repeat of the impossible.
The first true opening for the Premier League side came on 13 minutes when a fizzing Reiss Nelson free-kick from the left sparked a goalmouth scramble but after hurrying back to block the hosts kept turning the proverbial screw.
Brentford began to find more rhythm as the first half wore on yet struggled to carve out clearcut opportunities until a whipped Nelson effort, after Aaron Hickey’s pullback from the left, stung the hands of Macclesfield’s Max Dearnley. Still, Andrews would have demanded much more from his side as the game sat goalless at the break.
Crosses and long balls yielded plenty for Macclesfield, with Dawson’s head often the target after making late runs into the Brentford box. But early in the second half the visitors started to work out the puzzle posed by the National League North side, with the youngster Romelle Donovan beginning to relish his role down the right and Janelt and Mathias Jensen weaving a web through the middle.
Dearnley was called into action a little more after the break, while Cameron Borthwick-Jackson began to make some telling defensive contributions, including twice clearing from inside the six-yard box. On 62 minutes Dearnley tipped Jensen’s floating cross over the bar when it may have been dropping in.
Andrews threw on Keane Lewis-Potter for Nelson on the hour mark after the former Arsenal player had found the going increasingly tough against Macclesfield’s resilient back four. Brentford were searching for answers in the same way Palace had done last month, though the home supporters were not impressed. “Boring, boring Brentford” was their cry as the buildup became more sustained from the west London side.
Eventually the pressure told as Lewis-Potter made an instant impact, his cross from the left diverted by Heathcote past his goalkeeper Dearnley. The celebrations were almost apologetic from the Brentford players, but there was no doubt their second-half play had merited the goal. Heathcote, who had been a hero in the defeat of Palace, sunk his head to the ground.
Impressively, the goal did not dampen the spirits among Macclesfield’s fans, nor the players, who launched one final assault at a Premier League side. D’Mani Mellor found himself in striking distance of goal three times in the space of a minute but was thwarted on each occasion, lastly by the goalkeeper Hákon Valdimarsson. Brentford held on.
It had always been difficult to imagine lightning striking twice in the Cheshire rain, but this was another mightily brave Macclesfield FA Cup effort, without question.
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