Bruce on front foot after winning start
MACCLESFIELD’S new management team kicked off their reign in charge of the Silkmen with a slender victory on the road at Marske United.
After John Rooney picked out Laurent Mendy in the area, a piercing header from the centrehalf was enough to move his side back into a Northern Premier League Premier Division play-off spot.
Heavy rainfall and strong winds made for extremely tough conditions in North Yorkshire, making Macc’s victory all the more impressive.
“I couldn’t ask for anything more,” said manager Alex Bruce.
“Really difficult conditions as we’ve seen, I think we rode our luck a little bit but I thought to a man, in terms of effort and endeavour to go and get the three points, they were outstanding.
“The Goalkeeper, Dylan [Berry], coming in and making his debut I thought was very, very good and the two centrehalves played really well.
“To a man they dug in deep and it wasn’t easy because the conditions were appalling and we couldn’t play much football but in terms of scrap and hard-work I couldn’t ask for any more.”
Berry, 20, joined the Silkmen last Friday from Norwich City on a onemonth loan deal.
During a previous loan spell at St. Albans City, the ‘keeper led the Saints to the National League PlayOff Final last season and proved his worth on Saturday by making a number of crucial saves.
“You can see that he’s [Dylan Berry] got experience at this level, he played a lot of games in the National League South last year at St. Albans and he’s a big presence,” said Bruce.
“I think when you come to places like this where
they start lumping things in the box, his presence within the backline was excellent and he pulled off some really good saves as well.
“I was delighted with him and he can be proud of his performance.”
Tumultuous conditions didn’t make it easy for either side to play the football they’re used to, with Bruce adding that a change in tactics was required to adapt accordingly.
“We just concentrated on tucking our wingers in more to try and make us more compact, especially
in the middle of the pitch,” he said. “When you come away from home it’s always more difficult and I thought that the shape of the team was good.
“It was a great header from Mendy from the setpiece, we could have scored two or three from set-pieces but their ‘keeper made a few great saves.
“In terms of tactical tweaks, it was just a case of building on the momentum from last week because I thought the lads played really well in the Cup. We made a few little tweaks here and there but
nothing major and the lads took it on board really well.”
A threatening spell from Marske arrived in the final quarter of the game and appeared to cause Macc several problems.
Despite such danger from the hosts, Bruce’s men remained resilient in defence and earned the clean sheet.
“I thought that was the most pleasing thing,” claimed Bruce.
“Their endeavour and their determination to head the ball and tackle and stick to a structure
that we put in place, I thought they stuck to really well.
“They stuck to their tasks.”
A home fixture against Whitby Town this Saturday sees Macclesfield welcome Bruce to the Leasing.com Stadium for the first time since his playing spell back in 2021.
With the aim of promotion high on the agenda, the Silkmen boss stressed his excitement to get started in front of the home fans.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “It’s a
good, solid place to work from, it was a good result last week in the Cup and another good result away from home on Saturday where they’ve had to dig in.
“I’m sure the conditions will be a little bit easier for the lads to try and pass it around a little bit more and we’ll look forward to that now.”
Four of the next five fixtures for Macc are at home, with the anomalous away match coming in the Second Round of the Isuzu FA Trophy with an away tie to familiar opponents Alfreton Town, who were responsible for knocking the Silkmen out of the Emirates FA Cup last month.